My Point of Weakness
by The Sneak
Summary: Sakura had finally accepted the fact that Sasuke was no longer a part of her life...which of course made it the -perfect- time for him to return to Konoha. Eventual SasuSaku, hints of NejiSaku. Reposted from main account.
1. Which Is The Beginning

_A/N: I said this in the profile, but I'll repeat it here, just in case._

_AloryShannon = The Sneak. This is my old (obviously now-unused) account, from...well, I won't say how long ago._

_ So no angry or indignant notes or reviews about_ h_ow **'OMG** "My Point of Weakness" is by AloryShannon, this story isn't yours!' Oka_y_ guys? I'm reposting it here, not on my current account, for various reasons. Please don't make me regret it._

* * *

Twenty-two-year-old Haruno Sakura leapt quickly from rooftop to rooftop, swiftly making her way towards the front gates of Konoha village to meet her team for her first mission in months. The cool early-morning air felt good on her face; it contained a lingering dampness that would no doubt be burned away when the sun rose in a few hours. She bit back a yawn as she bounded from building to building over and across the silent, deserted streets—no sane people were up this early. She was actually grateful for this fact, however, since it meant she didn't have to wear her mask until they left Konoha.

"Why a cat?" Naruto had asked the first time she had shown it to him, squinting at it almost distrustfully.

"Why a fox?" she'd replied, playfully snapping the strap of his own ANBU mask and smirking at the yelp that it elicited.

"You know very well why mine's a fox," he'd said a bit huffily, rubbing at his forehead. "But why's yours a cat?"

She'd just shrugged in response. "Well, it couldn't very well be a cherry blossom, now, could it? Besides, I like cats."

One gloved hand unconsciously moved to brush the white-and-red mask that bumped gently against her hip with each stride, and she smiled faintly. She'd been accepted into ANBU a little over three years before, but the thought of her distinctly feline mask still made her grin with pride at her accomplishments.

She had excelled in her training as a medical ninja, and was now second only to Tsunade herself; she had significantly increased her skill in her abilities with genjutsu; and with her mastery of Tsunade's trademark "monstrous strength" technique, her taijutsu skills had also increased exponentially. No one who knew her at all well had really been surprised that she'd made it into ANBU, though they had questioned her reasons for joining.

"Because I can," she'd said with a cocky grin that was vaguely reminiscent of a certain old teammate of hers. "It's where I'll be most useful—there, and in the hospital."

It turned out, however, that a significantly larger amount of her time would be spent working in the hospital rather than going out on missions. Sakura had found this to be slightly disappointing at first, though after giving it some thought, she decided that truthfully she _was_ rather relieved that things had been so calm as of late. She only hoped that the recent lapse in attempts to overthrow Konoha, kill the Hokage, abduct the Kazekage, and/or forcefully tear Kyuubi out of Naruto wasn't the forerunner of some dire new difficulty looming on the horizon; but knowing their luck with these sorts of things, it probably was. What with both Orochimaru _and_ the Akatsuki's sudden lack of activity, it was just too quiet. She was counting down the days until the appearance of some new, ridiculously powerful S-class criminal and his organization of crazed psychopaths.

But somehow despite the lack of serious enemy activity, the hospital was still constantly bustling, and after several long months of being continuously on-call, and receiving _no_ missions whatsoever, Sakura had finally gone to Tsunade to request a change of pace.

"Perfect," the blonde woman had said with a smile as Sakura stepped into her office. "Just the person I wanted to see."

"Naruto's coming?" Sakura had exclaimed excitedly when Tsunade first mentioned that she did indeed have a mission for her, and that the hyperactive blonde would be going as well; it had been too long--nearly a year, in fact--since they'd last been on a mission together, and the pink-haired kunoichi looked elated that that was about to be rectified.

The Godaime smiled at her apprentice's jubilant reaction and gave a little shrug. "Well, since we have no idea what might be out there, I thought we might as well meet that wildcard with our own."

"Tsunade-shishou….please don't use gambling references when talking about missions…it makes me nervous."

Actually, the fact that Hyuuga Neji (one of the most powerful ANBU members), Nara Shikamaru (undoubtedly the brightest), and Naruto (the aforementioned "wildcard") were all being assigned this mission was what made her nervous; it was quite a powerful group, and with herself along as medic and genjutsu expert (and she was no weakling either), they were probably nearly an unstoppable team. Any mission that required that much power in such a small cell had to be something serious.

That's why she'd been so surprised when Tsunade told them the following day…

"Recon?"

"Yes, you heard me correctly, Sakura. This is solely a recon mission." Sitting back in her chair, the buxom blonde surveyed the four ANBU members standing before her. "We have received several reports that 'something strange' is going on along the border at the Land of the Waterfall…a few of the villages in that area have sent messages with both complaints and requests that the situation to be examined." She met each of their eyes in turn. "Orochimaru has been uncharacteristically quiet of late, and I don't like that. It makes me suspicious enough to think that these disturbances might have something to do with him. Therefore, I decided that you four would be the ideal cell to investigate this little mystery."

Shikamaru raised a hand. "May I?"

"Certainly."

"You said that these people reported seeing 'something strange,' so...what exactly is their definition of 'something strange'?"

The Godaime smiled. "Like to know what you're up against, eh?"

"Yeah…it tends to help."

Tsunade chuckled. "Well, I'm afraid I can't really answer your question very specifically. The messages from the villages mention lots of dark figures flitting about, random bursts of flame, and other 'strange' things of a similar nature. It sounds like ninja activity, all right, but that information is deplorably ambiguous…which is why I'm sending in a special cell of ANBU operatives, not just a team of jounin." Her expression suddenly became quite stern. "But let me make one thing perfectly clear to all of you right now: regardless of what you find out there, you are not, I repeat, are _not_ to engage any enemies other than in self-defense; you are merely to discern what the trouble is, gather what information you can, and get the hell back here with it as quickly as possible, with your team in one piece. And if you can do all that without being seen or detected, more's the better," she said, looking pointedly at Naruto, who flashed her an impish grin.

"Any more questions? No? Alright then, you're to leave early tomorrow morning. Go ahead and decide the specifics amongst yourselves, but I'm appointing Nara Shikamaru team leader, so you'll have to run your ideas past him."

She looked at each of them once more, her gaze lingering a bit on Sakura and Naruto. "Good luck. Dismissed!"

_Well, reconnaissance may not be the most exciting type of mission, but at least I'm getting out of Konoha for a while,_ Sakura thought as she ran lightly along a rooftop. Swinging herself over the building's edge, she landed softly on the ground below and slowed her pace to a brisk walk; the shadow of the massive gate loomed ahead, and she was a good fifteen minutes early.

On reaching her destination, Sakura found that she was the second to arrive at their designated meeting point; the tall, slim form of Hyuuga Neji stood slightly outside the open gate, his shadow slicing a long, dark gash in the fading moonlight that poured in through the huge stone arch.

She had known that he would be there first; he always was. She had toyed with the idea of masking her chakra and attempting to sneak up on him, but she knew that it probably would have just irritated him, never mind the fact that it was also quite unprofessional. Besides, it was far too early in the morning to try to be cute.

Arms crossed over his chest, his pale eyes regarded her with a close, careful deliberation as she approached, but he remained utterly motionless, save for blinking and, she assumed, breathing.

"Good morning, Neji-san," she said, bowing as she stepped into the pale oval of spilt moonlight.

"Haruno," he inclined his head slightly in return as she came to stand by him.

She and Neji had been paired together as recon buddies for this mission. It made sense if you thought about it (and Sakura had of course): Naruto was without a doubt the most powerful member of the group--anyone who had him for their partner would be fine, and since Shikamaru was the least combat-oriented of the group, he was the one who wound up paired with Naruto. Neji and Sakura, who were both quite powerful in their own right, also made ideal partners, their combined strengths making them a daunting force to deal with; also, they had worked well together on a few previous missions, so they already knew that they made an efficient team.

Sakura turned her head slightly to look up and over at the tall Hyuuga. His eyes were focused straight ahead of them, so she allowed her gaze to linger, studying him.

His ANBU uniform fit him well, she decided, though it still seemed rather strange to see him in anything other than the more traditional style of clothing that he wore these days; it was odd to see him in pants, she thought with an inward giggle. His ANBU mask was strapped to the side of his left shoulder, and his well-toned arms were still firmly crossed over his chest. His hair, long and rich shadowy-brown, fell to the middle of his back, though it was tied back loosely to keep it out of the way during their mission.

The moonlight spilled over his pale skin, almost seeming to make it glow faintly blue, and her eyes moved up a bit more to focus on his face. His features were delicate—his eyes striking and fringed about with dark lashes, his lips thin and shapely, his nose straight—and in that he reminded her somewhat of _another_ proud member of a prestigious clan, one who had left long ago, though Neji's face had a more classic, aristocratic beauty to it…

"Haruno," he said without even looking over at her, "it isn't polite to stare."

With a deep flush she realized that she had indeed been doing just that; thankfully Shikamaru shuffled up at just that moment, saving her from having to respond or attempt to explain herself to the softly smirking Hyuuga.

Their team leader merely grunted at her rather overenthusiastic greeting, looking sleepy and generally displeased at being up at that hour, muttering something about how troublesome this mission was already turning out to be. He, too, was dressed in the ANBU uniform, and like Sakura, his mask hung at his hip.

That only left Naruto, but it was still a few minutes before the time they'd set for their rendezvous.

Naruto. Sakura thought of him and smiled. He was always able to make her smile, it seemed, ever since she'd gotten over her initial annoyance with him. He'd grown up into a tall, undeniably handsome man, as well as an incredibly strong ninja; but what she was the most proud of was the fact that he had grown up into a _good_ man as well. Though he was still too loud and obnoxious sometimes, and though he still played the occasional practical joke, he had matured, but he was still every bit as kind and tenderhearted as the twelve-year-old boy who'd cried over the death of an innocent, dedicated enemy on their first mission; it was clear that as he had grown, his heart had grown with him.

And if he continued as he had been, he'd be inaugurated as the next Hokage within the next few years.

Finally he would achieve his life's dream.

(And if someone had told Sakura_ that_ back when she'd first met the blonde, she would've laughed until her knees buckled.)

How had he done it? Sakura had found herself wondering, and more than once, too. How had he, once the biggest loser in the village, managed to eventually surpass them all? Why was it that he seemed to be able to do anything he set his mind to?

Sometimes she thought he just managed to do things because he _wanted_ to badly enough--that at times he quite literally _willed_ himself into being able to do whatever it was that needed to be done. Take the tree-climbing exercise Kakashi-sensei had set them to during their first real mission. Naruto had made it to the top of the highest tree in the whole forest, but she knew for a fact that her chakra control was _still_ a dozen times more refined than his.

Of course, it had to be, or she'd be out of chakra before Naruto had even warmed up.

It wasn't fair, really, that she had worked so hard and had still been so weak—mediocre at best—and that _he_ had clowned around in or slept through class, and what did _he _have to show for it?

Well, an ANBU tattoo and uniform for one thing.

But then again, so did she.

Even so, regardless of that slight, lingering resentment of his having so easily surpassed her back during their childhood training days, they still had an unbreakable bond of friendship and trust that served them well on their missions as adults, and had resulted in them being paired together for missions quite often. It _had_ been a while since her last mission, however, and it brought a special levity to her heart to know that she was once again going on a mission with Naruto, even if they weren't partners this time...

"SAKURA-_CHAAAAAN!"_

_Speak of the devil._

She scarcely managed to get out a bright "Good morning, Naruto-kun!" before finding herself enveloped in a warm hug that was so enthusiastic, it was practically a tackle. She gave a little chuckle and returned his embrace, drawing a quiet hum of contentment from the tall blonde.

"I _missed_ you, Sakura-chan!" he exclaimed after a moment, pulling back slightly to beam down at her.

"Missed me?" she laughed up at him. "You saw me yesterday, silly!"

He blinked, his blue eyes widening a bit as if only now remembering that fact. "Oh, yeah!"

"So, I heard you had a date last night," she teased, sneaking a quick look at Neji out of the corner of her eye as she did so.

Naruto had been dating Neji's cousin Hyuuga Hinata for a while now (one night Sakura had finally gotten fed up with _her_ constant blushing and stuttering around Naruto as well as _his_ total obliviousness to Hinata's feelings, and had burst out, "She LIKES you, you idiot! Now DO something about it!" At which point the two had just stared at each other, both slowly turning red, until Sakura growled in irritation and left them alone to figure things out for themselves. She found out the next day that things had apparently gone _very _well, and that Naruto and Hinata were now a couple…as well as a popular item for gossip.)

…Gossip which apparently was true, judging from the way he was now nearly dancing with her, grasping her wrists and spinning them both in circles as he babbled on, relating the success of his date the previous night.

"Save your energy, Naruto, you're going to need it," Neji reprimanded the ever-exuberant blonde, though the Hyuuga sounded neither worried nor severe; he knew as well as the rest of them that Naruto _always_ seemed to have plenty of energy, regardless of how liberally he used it.

Sakura had always thought that he'd grow out of his hyperactive tendencies, but once he had left his teen years behind him and still showed no sign of slowing down in the least, she'd determined that he was cursed to be hopelessly twitchy for the rest of his life and resigned herself to dealing with it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Naruto released his gentle grip on Sakura's wrists, and spun to a stop facing the tall, pale-eyed Hyuuga, bouncing a bit on the balls of his feet in anticipation. "We're all here, let's go!"

All three of them looked at Shikamaru, the team leader, who nodded once, snapping his mask into place; Sakura and Neji followed suit.

"All _right!" _Naruto whooped, not bothering with his own mask, as per usual.

With that, the blonde took off, the rest of his team close on his heels.

* * *

The journey to the border would take a day and a half at top speed, and Sakura reveled in it; it had been far too long since she'd been able to release energy like this. She easily kept pace with the other members of her team, playfully cutting Naruto off every now and then when she thought Shikamaru and Neji weren't looking.

Tiring of that little game after just a short time (she didn't want to annoy him, after all, just mess with him a bit), she let her mind wander a little.

It was still strange to think of herself as ANBU sometimes; if someone had told her ten years before that she'd one day join the Black Ops, she would've told them they were crazy...but then again, if someone had told her about all the other things that would happen between then and now, she wouldn't have believed that either.

_So much time has passed…so many things have changed…_

Off to her right, she saw Naruto cut Neji off, chuckling when she heard the blonde's stifled snigger and the Hyuuga's quiet growl over her earpiece.

…_And some things haven't really changed at all._

Because the past few months had been so slow (in terms of missions, anyway), it was only when she stopped and took a step back from it all that Sakura realized how insanely busy she had been the past ten years. At first she'd been focusing on her training all the time, working to make herself useful, determined to be strong; now that she'd attained that goal, she worked a regular shift in the hospital (and sometimes more when she could get away with it), and when she wasn't helping people recover, or figuring out ways to surreptitiously spend _more_ time helping people recover, she was off on ANBU missions, sometimes for months at a time.

She shook her head. Had it really been ten years since Sasuke had left? It certainly didn't seem like that long.

Sometimes she wondered if a part of her still loved Sasuke even now, but she always pushed the thought away with disgust. She would not allow herself to cling to a memory; she would not allow herself to become pathetic, pale, and withdrawn by pining for the past--something that she hadn't even _had,_ just something she'd _wanted_ in the past. She would go strongly forward to face and embrace whatever it was that life had for her now, and since that obviously didn't include one Uchiha Sasuke, she was better off just not thinking about him.

She _had_ loved him once, and despite all that had happened, she still cared for him deeply, but…she wouldn't call that caring "love" exactly. At least, not the same type of love (or, rather, mindless devotion) that she'd had for him before…as much as a twelve-year-old girl _could_ love like that, anyway. But ten years was a long time to pine away after someone who'd decided that it would be a smart move to ally themselves with the most blatantly evil ninja around in order to become stronger, the eventual cost of it all be damned.

And it was difficult to love someone who'd turned their back on you a long time ago, someone you hadn't really seen or interacted with for years, other than the odd five-to-ten-minute-long encounter here and there where you both seriously tried your hardest to kill each other.

Thus, painfully, she'd moved on. It had been hard at first to give up all hope of _him_ ever coming back, but Naruto and Tsunade, and surprisingly Ino and Kakashi, had all been there to give her support in their various ways (Naruto though his constant buoyant presence and his refusal to leave her alone to mope, Ino through plenty of shopping, makeovers, and general pampering, and Tsunade and Kakashi through lots and lots of painful extra training).

Time had passed. She'd recovered her sense of balance. She'd had fun again, had found that, yes, wonder of wonders, she _could_ enjoy life without Sasuke. She'd dated. She'd been kissed. She'd kissed back. And though she often bemoaned her apparently permanent single status, she knew the reason for it well enough: she just hadn't found that perfect someone yet…though it certainly wasn't from lack of trying.

But it wasn't like she'd had a lot of free time to look for Mr. Right, either. Tsunade had seen to that, and while Sakura was proud of the significant amount trust her shishou had placed in her, a little time off would've been nice every now and then. She'd been so ridiculously absorbed in busywork at the hospital, she hadn't had a date in months—she would come home to her small apartment after work, wearily wash away the day's sweat, blood, and grime, then collapse into bed where she slept like the dead until it was time for her morning training session…after which she headed right back to the hospital.

It had been getting rather tiresome.

So now that Tsunade had sent her out on her first ANBU mission in months, it almost felt like a vacation.

She snorted to herself. _You know you REALLY need to take some time off when the idea of a recon mission seems exciting._ Sakura made a mental note to bring the subject up with Tsunade as soon as she returned to Konoha.

…But then again, maybe she wouldn't. She was in constant demand as a medic-nin, and finding a boyfriend really wasn't the highest thing on her list of priorities; it couldn't be. As nice as it would have been to have one, Sakura was practical enough to know that her focus had to remain on her life as a kunoichi first, and as a woman second. Her loyalty was to her village, even if it meant she had to betray her own feelings a bit.

She let out a small sigh, bringing her focus back to the mission at hand. Funny how far one's mind could wander even while leaping through trees at high speed. She was rather relieved that she hadn't slipped or tripped or done anything else equally embarrassing while her body had been on autopilot. After all, as the only female on this mission, she had to do her best to represent her sex—which meant constantly proving to her teammates, and to herself as well, that kunoichi were just as fast, and strong, and alert, and countless other things as well, as their male counterparts.

It was a constant challenge, she had to admit, especially considering her current team of two geniuses (albeit one of which was rather lazy) and a ridiculously strong, hyperactive prankster.

Sakura grinned behind her mask. She loved a challenge.

* * *

It had been a long night, and they'd seen no one since they'd parted ways with Naruto and Shikamaru three hours ago. As they leapt easily from tree to tree, Sakura often found herself casting glances over at her partner, the silent Hyuuga. He was almost as quiet as Sasuke had been, she thought, and he had the same air of power and superiority as the Uchiha heir. Pausing for half a moment to readjust her radio earpiece, she cast another fleeting look at Neji as he leapt noiselessly past, and she wondered what he was thinking at that moment; his hawk-faced mask hid his current expression--not that he was one to be overly expressive of most of his emotions even without it.

_He really _is_ quite handsome,_ Sakura thought absently, her mind recalling how the fading moonlight had lit the Hyuuga's striking face and features the previous morning when he'd caught her staring at him; she was suddenly glad that her own mask hid the quick blush that the memory brought to her face. She shook her head at herself; she was _supposed_ to be focusing on searching for whatever was causing the disturbances in this area, which could by all rights be the most evil and disturbed ninja she'd ever encountered, and here she was thinking about _boys!_

_How old are you again?_ she thought ruefully as Inner Sakura raged at her, _**you haven't been **_**this**_** distracted on a mission since that stupid loser Sasuke ran off almost ten years ago!**_

Once again she paused on a branch and sighed, slipping a hand beneath her feline mask to rub her face. Why did everyone remotely interesting _always _have to remind her of Sasuke?

…_Ten years…_

"Something wrong, Haruno?" Neji was suddenly crouching on the branch above her, and his position and the hawk mask made him look like a raptor ready to swoop down on its prey.

Sakura felt an acute stab of embarrassment that he'd had to stop and ask. What was _wrong_ with her? "No, nothing's wrong. Sorry, Neji-san…I'm just having trouble keeping my mind on this mission."

Mask still in place, he stared down at her wordlessly for a moment, and she wondered if he was using his Byakugan on her…and if he really could somehow read minds with it. She hoped not. At last he nodded. "Try to focus, then. We still have a lot of ground to cover tonight—"

"—And we can't afford any delays. I know…I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Neji nodded again, and together they leaped off through the dark boles of the dusk-shrouded trees once more.

Almost an entire hour had passed when Neji suddenly stopped abruptly. He'd been constantly sweeping the forest before them with his Byakugan, and until now, he hadn't seen any signs of human life.

"See something?" Sakura whispered to him over the headset; apparently she'd noticed him stop.

"There's something on the ground ahead…some_one, _I think." He adjusted the setting on his earpiece to the cell's shared channel before muttering, "Alpha, this is Beta. There's someone here."

"How many?" Shikamaru's voice snapped back tensely.

"Just one," Neji turned his gaze back towards the forest floor, "and he isn't moving. His body is in an odd position--looks like he collapsed. I don't think he's lying in wait for us."

"Can you get a visual confirmation on where he's from?"

"Not from here. We're going to check it out, Alpha. Stand by."

"Roger that, Beta. Be careful."

Neji turned his head to look up at Sakura, who was perched on the branch directly above his. "This way."

Within moments, both were crouched side by side high in a tree over the small clearing. Squinting and pushing up her mask, Sakura could make out a pale figure sprawled on the ground below, though she couldn't make out any defining characteristics: the body was too far away, and was cloaked in the deep shadow of the moonlit forest.

"Sakura." Pulling his mask aside, Neji caught her bright green eyes with his pale ones, holding them with his usual intense stare; she hardly even noticed that he'd used her given name, not her family name, addressing her much more familiarly. "I'm going to check it out. Stay here, and be ready to call for the others." He nodded at the dark figure below. "He's alone, and I don't see anyone else in the vicinity, but it still might be a trap." His mouth tightened slightly as he looked back over at the kunoichi beside him. "Just be ready."

Sakura nodded wordlessly, her hand drifting to the hilt of her standard ANBU-issue katana as Neji disappeared in a whirl of leaves.

About half a minute of tense waiting later, Neji's soft voice floated up from below: "Sakura, get down here."

Wondering at the urgency in his tone (and a bit worried by it as well), she teleported quickly to forest floor to find her partner kneeling beside a pale-skinned, dark-robed body.

Her heart seemed to stop for a long moment, and she dropped to her knees beside the still figure as she found herself looking down into the handsome, ashen-hued face of Uchiha Sasuke.


	2. Which Is Long & A Little Bloody

Staring down at the face of the man she had once loved, Sakura found herself severely shaken.

Honestly, she had never expected to see him again.

"Is he…is he…alive?" she finally forced the words out. She found she was too afraid to touch him to see for herself—too afraid that he might suddenly disappear, or that she would wake up to find that it had all been nothing more than another strange, frustrating dream…

Hearing the strain in her voice, Neji refrained from mentioning the fact that she, as the medic-nin, was probably the one who should be determining that, and his brows contracted slightly as he scanned the Uchiha's body with his Byakugan, searching for a pulse: it was faint, and slightly erratic, but there.

"He's alive, but his pulse is very weak and unsteady." He looked over at her, chakra-puffed veins subsiding back into his once-more smooth face; she hadn't stopped staring down at the pale, blood-soaked form before them, eyes wide in a look of shock and horror. Frowning just slightly, he forced steel into his voice. "Snap out of it, Sakura. You'll have to work quickly if you're going to save him."

Sakura nodded, feeling as if she were moving and thinking through water, or a thick mud; her body felt slow and heavy, her mind stunned and sluggish…

_No!_ Closing her eyes tightly, she shook her head hard. _Focus, Sakura, focus! He needs healing, and badly. Any other thoughts can wait until you've got him stabilized…_ Still feeling a bit dazed, she bit down hard on the inside of her cheek; the sudden pain and the unpleasant, metallic taste of blood flooding her mouth jolted her back into the moment, and once more she moved with her customary speed and unhesitance as she bent over the bloody figure stretched on the ground before her.

Though he was covered with numerous outward bruises, cuts, and lacerations, for the most part she bypassed those to deal with later; injuries to internal organs came first. Placing her hand on his chest, she closed her eyes, carefully slipping a little of her chakra into his _keirakukei_ and monitoring the areas where it ran into obstructions; her slight frown of concentration slowly changed to one of incredulity. _Nearly _all_ of his internal organs are in such awful shape, it's a wonder he's still alive! It must be through sheer force of will that his heart is even beating at all…_

"Well?" Neji asked quietly as her eyes flickered open for a moment and she wiped a thin layer of sweat off her self-proclaimed wide brow. "How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad," Sakura replied grimly, settling herself into a slightly more comfortable position and removing her radio's earpiece. "He's going into ventricular fibrillation, his left lung has been punctured at least once, his ribs are cracked, he's got a second-degree concussion, and …well, there's more, but there's not time…"

And with that she set her hands on his chest again, eyes drifting closed as the air around her hands flickered like flame and started glowing bright green.

Even as she worked, carefully and quickly mending rips and tears on vital organs faster than she ever had before, she was worried that it might not be enough. This method of treatment, the Shōsen Jutsu, was both useful and highly effective, and it was definitely the healing technique she used the most, but she was afraid that something more serious might have been in order. However, she had neither the time nor the proper materials to perform the Chikatsu Saisei no Jutsu--the seal was far too large and complex--and she didn't know if Sasuke's broken body could take the strain of it anyway…

_**Stop worrying and focus! Save your energy for something useful, stupid!**_

Sakura bit her lip and focused more fully on the task at hand.

After she'd been working about five minutes, Neji suddenly remembered the rest of their team. "Alpha, this is Beta," he said quietly into the radio, moving to the other side of the small clearing so as not to disturb the medic-nin's careful work.

"What did you find? What is it?" Naruto's worried voice instantly buzzed over the earpiece. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Neji said, turning back to watch Sakura work, the green glow from her hands lighting her face in a nearly mesmerizing fashion. "Nothing's wrong, but…I think you'd better get over here, fast. Especially you, Naruto."

"What?" the blonde demanded, but Neji merely clicked his headset off in reply. Naruto would see "what" soon enough.

Naruto's response on seeing just what they'd found was, surprisingly enough, very similar to Sakura's: he stopped in his tracks, staring in dismay at the Uchiha's still, blood-spattered form, blue eyes wider than Neji had ever seen them.

"Is…is he…?" he began, echoing the words of his pink-haired teammate.

"Yes, he's alive." _For now, anyway…_ Neji added to himself. Whether or not he remained that way depended solely on Sakura.

For now, all they could do was watch and wait.

* * *

Just over two hours after she'd started, Sakura drew in a loud, shuddering breath. Three heads quickly turned in her direction as she released it, slowly opening her eyes and shakily withdrawing her hands from Sasuke's chest. Then she looked up, giving them a weary smile, and they all relaxed a bit; Sasuke wasn't dead yet, apparently.

"How is he?" Naruto was instantly at her side, his hands wrapped around her shoulders to support her obviously exhausted body, and she slumped back against him gratefully.

"Still not so great…I took care of the worst internal injuries, though there're still several things that need attention…" She swallowed thickly, finding her throat very dry, and continued, "I haven't even really looked at his external wounds…I sealed up a serious one on his chest, but couldn't bother with anything other than the critical wounds…and I don't know what his back's like--didn't get a chance to look." Naruto squeezed her shoulders comfortingly as she scrubbed at her face with her hands, her movements radiating frustration. "There's still so much that needs to be done! So much…and I'm already nearly exhausted…" Turning her head, she buried her face in the crook of the blonde's neck, letting out a quiet, melancholy moan that only Naruto heard.

"Hey now, you did good!" he said, pressing his cheek to the side of her head. "He's still alive, anyway—he'd be dead for sure if you hadn't been with us, Sakura-chan!"

Pushing her fatigue-induced emotions violently aside, she pulled back a bit and nodded. "You're right, I'm sorry…I'm just tired." Nonetheless the look she turned down at the bloody figure before her was one of undisguised apprehension.

Seeing her gaze, Shikamaru knelt quickly across from her. "What can I do to help?"

Drained as she was, Sakura still had more than enough energy to gape at him. "E-excuse me?" _He did_ not _just…_

Shikamaru sighed. "It's a real pain in the ass, but even I can see that he needs help. What can I do?"

That utterly shocked expression was still on her face, and it seemed to be stuck. "You. You just…volunteered. To _do_ something."

"Yeah, I did," he grumbled. "Don't let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity pass you by..."

"Okay," she said with a giggle that made it clear to him that he was going to regret this.

* * *

Shikamaru decided that if he ever caught himself volunteering for anything ever again, he was going commit seppuku right then and there. He didn't know how a woman could deal so calmly with so much blood and so many terrible, disgusting injuries; a few of them were nearly enough to make _his_ stomach turn, yet Sakura took it all in stride, seemingly unaffected by the oozing, blistered burns covering a large portion of the Uchiha's body, the sight of exposed muscle or the occasional bone, and the wet sucking noises the numerous kunai, shuriken, and senbon made while being withdrawn from live flesh.

He shuddered. This mission was turning out be ridiculously troublesome…and pretty gross as well.

Sakura requested a short rest before they headed back to Konoha, though she also stressed the fact that they needed to get Sasuke more medical attention as quickly as possible. While she was recovering some of her strength with some water and rice balls, she'd supervised the other three in cleaning and binding the rest of Sasuke's wounds, though at one point she'd had to use more of her rapidly dwindling chakra to heal an especially deep and vicious wound on his thigh that just wouldn't stop bleeding.

Both his arms were broken, one of them in three places, though thankfully none of the fractures were compound, and his right leg had somehow twisted out of its socket; she'd had no choice but to instruct her companions on putting it back into place—it would only have gotten worse with the travel if they hadn't.

After they'd wrapped the Uchiha's wounds as best they could (leaving him looking vaguely like a mummy, which Sakura had teasingly pointed out, only to be met by the half-irritable reply from Neji, "Well at least he isn't dripping everywhere anymore," which she'd had to agree was an improvement) and Sakura had gathered her resolve and what little chakra she had left, they set out for Konoha at top speed. Naruto had insisted on carrying Sasuke himself--he had the most chakra left of all of them, and he was the fastest, too--and no one had argued the point. He was right, after all, and besides that, they knew that _he_ wanted to be the one to bring Sasuke back home, just as he'd promised Sakura he would all those years ago.

Despite their speed and the brevity (or, more often, absence) of rest breaks, it would still take more than a day to reach Konoha, and though she didn't show it, Sakura was concerned. Normally their increased pace wouldn't've been a problem, but after all the intense healing she'd done, she was already feeling a bit wobbly. She'd done it more quickly than usual, too, since time had been of the essence, forcing herself to repair Sasuke's critically wounded body at a speed that Tsunade probably would have called reckless; but she had been painstakingly careful at the same time, and it had all worked out in the end, though it had left Sakura drained both mentally and physically.

When they were nearly halfway back, Sakura did something she'd never done on a mission before: she called for a halt. "I need to check Sasuke's wounds to make sure nothing's gotten worse." It was a good excuse since it was the truth, but it was also a chance to grab a short rest.

But she didn't seize it as strongly as the twelve-year-old Sakura would have; once she was satisfied that Sasuke's injuries hadn't intensified too much, she started them off again, though her head was spinning from healing a few minor internal leaks that hadn't been there before.

They hadn't gone much farther before she knew she was in trouble. She could feel herself lagging, gradually losing her grip on consciousness, but she struggled against that feeling and pushed onwards regardless. _We have to get Sasuke back as quickly as possible…some of his wounds… _She shook her head, not wanting to think about what the rough journey slung over Naruto's shoulder was doing to the injured Uchiha's delicate internal organs. _Time is of the essence. There's no time for being weak…I can't hold us back…_

But even as that thought crossed her mind, the blackness that had been flickering at the edges of her vision rushed inward to fill her eyes completely; her feet landed firmly on the branch she'd been aiming for, but then she pitched forward, sliding almost soundlessly from her perch towards the ground.

* * *

Before she'd fallen five feet, Neji snatched her up mid-leap; with his Byakugan he'd quickly noticed her swiftly-diminishing amount of chakra as well as her growing exhaustion, and had carefully positioned himself behind her just in case a situation like this occurred.

Neji paused momentarily to settle her more comfortably in his arms; then on impulse, he pulled her mask aside just to be sure she was alright, smiling slightly on finding himself looking down at her very pale but relaxed face.

A flicker of black and white caught the corner of his eye, and he glanced over to see Naruto perched on a nearby branch, looking down at him. His mask was strapped sideways to his head as it always was, which gave Neji a clear look at the tense, evaluating stare on the blonde's face; he seemed to be deciding whether or not the Hyuuga was allowed to carry _his_ Sakura-chan.

Slowly Neji eased his own mask upwards to sit on the crown of his head, meeting Naruto's questing azure gaze with his pale, piercing one.

After a long moment, the blonde's mouth quirked into his usual cocky, crooked smile, and he nodded his approval—and his appreciation.

Neji gave a slight smile in return and nodded as well, then both were leaping through the trees once more in an attempt to catch up with Shikamaru—not that that really took much effort.

The Hyuuga smiled down at the inert form of the pink-haired kunoichi cradled in his arms. She wasn't particularly heavy and he still had plenty of chakra, more than enough to easily get them both back to Konoha, and really, he didn't mind carrying her. Actually, he thought it was rather nice…though Tenten would probably have punched him rather hard if she could have seen him then.

Neji had recently come to respect Haruno Sakura, though just a little less than a year before he had thought her to be insufferably weak, and therefore beneath his notice. Thus, he had privately bemoaned being paired with her on a two-man assassination mission, resigning himself to the (he believed) inevitable task of protecting her and having to fight well enough for two. His opinion had hastily changed during a surprise attack from a group of Mist nins while on their way to their target; she'd ripped a tree out of the ground and flattened half a dozen of the enemy nin with it, then turned around to heal a deep wound he'd gotten in his fight with the remaining three nins--one of them had gotten ridiculously lucky and had hit his blind spot with a kunai the instant before his Kaiten Spin had begun.

Actually, he thought, that was the very reason that it was really quite advantageous for Sakura to have your back: she could certainly hold her own in a fight, and if something went wrong, she was right there to fix you up again, good as new.

Still, she was a woman, and despite her many, varied strengths, her primary weakness was that she had less stamina than many of the male ninja; she also had a tendency to overdo things, as the current situation indicated. Sometimes she wanted to help just a little too much, and because of that she would push herself too far--though with a chakra control as remarkable as hers, she must have been well aware of what she was doing.

But really that only made her that much more endearing.

_Uzumaki and Uchiha are lucky to have someone like this to care for them,_ Neji thought with a faint smile, knowing but not caring to admit to himself that he was pleased that the pink-haired woman cared about _him_ as well.

* * *

Sakura awoke to find herself in a familiar setting: her office at the hospital, lying flat on her back on the small cot that she'd had put there for the nights she had to spend on call. She was still fully dressed in her ANBU uniform, though she had been covered with the bed's rather thin blanket.

She moaned softly as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. _Guess I passed out on the way back. How embarrassing. But then, how…?_ Her eyes snapped open wide and she scrambled from the bed, hurriedly unsnapping her ANBU vest and slipping her white medic's coat on over the rest of her uniform before scurrying out the door and into the hallway. _The clock said it's 6:00, and I can tell that it's morning, but what _day_ is it? How long have I been out? And what's happened to Sasuke?_

She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost ran straight into a tall figure as she whipped around a corner.

"Neji!" she exclaimed, jerking to a stop. She still would have collided with him had he not smoothly stepped to the side, placing himself out of her trajectory and allowing her to stumble to a halt directly where he'd been standing a mere moment before.

"Haruno," he replied with a faint smirk, and Sakura suddenly felt very self-conscious.

_I must look awful…_

She resisted the urge to smooth down her hair, though her eyes narrowed a bit as she took in his appearance--perfect as ever, of course. He'd obviously had a shower and changed; his ANBU uniform had been replaced by a long, smoky silver-and-grey kimono, and his hair hung free, one of the few times Sakura had seen it thus.

"Here." He held a steaming cup out towards her. "I was coming to check on you," he continued as she gratefully accepted the tea and took a small sip of the bracingly hot liquid. "You've been out for a while…we were getting a bit worried."

Instantly all her questions came flooding back, and here was the perfect person to answer them all. "Neji-san, how long have I been out? Is everyone else alright? What happened to Sasuke?"

"Slow down," he said, his smirk deepening a bit as he started walking down the corridor, back the way he'd come. Sakura fell into step beside him. "You passed out yesterday around noon, and have been out ever since. Everyone else is fine, though Naruto's not in the _best_ of moods at the moment. Uchiha Sasuke is…" He hesitated for just a fraction of a second, but that was more than enough to worry the kunoichi at his side. "He's still alive, don't worry," the Hyuuga hastened to assure her, seeing the sudden look of dread in her eyes. "He's being held for interrogation…they've got him here in his own room under heavy guard." _Though precious little good _that_ will do if it turns out that he's…no longer who we think he is,_ he thought, though he kept it to himself. He was certain that Sakura knew very well just who--or _what,_ rather--she might have saved, and she did not need to be reminded of that particularly painful fact.

"Neji-san…" she began in a low voice, absently running a finger around the rim of her tea cup. "Has he…has he said anything? Do we even know if he's…?" Sakura trailed off, looking up at her companion with troubled eyes.

The pale-eyed man shook his head negatively.

"…I see."

He didn't like the look of bitterness on her face--it didn't fit with her usually-upbeat personality. "Haruno, regardless of what happens now, it will not be your fault. You saved a life, which is what you have been trained to do. It would have been impossible for you as a medic-nin to merely stand by and let him die. Had I been in your place, I would have done the same; I would have saved him, too. There should be no guilt in what you have done."

"But…if he's…that _monster—"_

"Then he should not be too difficult to deal with in his current condition."

That brought a weak smile to her face. "True." She blinked suddenly as she rethought his last statement, angling a small frown up at the tall Hyuuga. " 'His current condition'?"

Neji kept walking, ignoring her question and refusing to meet her eyes. "Tsunade-sama is going to begin her interrogation soon, but it is likely that you could slip in to see him first if you are so inclined." He shrugged slightly, the movement really more of a minute shoulder-twitch. "It wouldn't matter if you got caught anyway—you _are_ a highly-skilled medic-nin after all. And from what I can see--which with the Byakugan is quite a lot--Uchiha is going to require a significant amount of skilled medical attention."

Sakura blinked in surprise, eyes widening in realization. "Tsu--Tsunade-shishou didn't heal him?" she asked softly, coming to a stop.

Neji allowed himself to grimace before turning back to face her. "She took a look at him when we brought him in…and worked on him maybe ten minutes before leaving. She said that you'd stabilized him, and that was all that mattered right now." He shifted his weight, a nearly imperceptible indicator of his discomfort, and one that Sakura missed completely. "I think…she didn't want to fully heal someone who might turn out to be…dangerous."

Ah. It certainly made since, but still…Sasuke's injuries had been numerous and severe, and Sakura knew that she herself had hardly even scratched the surface of what needed to be done. And if there was even the slightest chance that he was still himself, that he wasn't possessed by that _thing_...

Sakura's mind raced. _He must be in terrible pain right now…they wouldn't put him on anesthetics if they're planning on interrogating him…but…_

She frowned again, the expression thoughtful. "So why did Tsunade-shishou wait to interrogate him?" Surely the Godaime must have known that Sakura would have some issues with her long-lost old teammate being tortured for information; she would have thought that Tsunade would've acted as quickly as possible while her old apprentice was still unable to protest her actions.

Neji snorted lightly. "How should I know? She's a woman…she does what she wants." Turning a falsely bright smile down to meet the cold glare he was receiving from his companion, he went on, "Actually, it was quite late last night when we got back, so we…neglected to immediately inform her of our arrival. Naruto insisted on it…and he can be _quite_ persuasive." Impassive as he often was, even the patient, long-suffering Hyuuga could not mask the hint of irritation that laced his words.

Sakura hid her smile behind her tea and wondered what her blonde friend had done _this_ time. She'd have to ask him later.

"Tsunade-sama found out quickly enough, though. It's hard to be secretive when you're checking a half-dead missing nin into the village hospital—and it doesn't help your chances of keeping things on the down-low when the person you're trying to avoid is actually in _charge_ of said hospital."

Sakura fought back a smile. "…How bad was it?"

The Hyuuga didn't even attempt to hide his grimace this time. "Let's just say she _really _wasn't happy with us. At all." He let out a low chuckle. "But we all got her back in our mission reports. Keeping in mind how much she _loves_ reading those, we made them nice and _long_…which probably has something to do with the fact that she hasn't started the interrogation yet--she has to read through those first, after all." He gave another minute shrug. "Though it also could have something to do with Naruto. He's been following her closer than her own shadow since she kicked him out of Uchiha's hospital room late last night...I've never _seen_ such a display of temper. I think he nearly went to six tails right then and there." He shook his head wearily. "Anyway, he's been pestering Tsunade-sama to let him see Uchiha ever since—and of course, Tsunade-sama keeps refusing, since she knows she'd never get him out again once he finds out about the coming interrogation."

Neji suddenly stopped before a door with two ANBU guards standing on either side; looking around, Sakura quickly realized that they were in the oldest and least-used part of the hospital.

"He's in there," her pale-eyed companion said, nodding towards the door, then he dropped his voice to a near-whisper. "I'll try to stall Tsunade-sama if at all possible, but she'll be here soon regardless. And remember…be careful. Try to help him if you can, but keep in mind what we don't know."

Handing him her empty tea cup, she nodded her thanks, swallowed hard, then stepped forward, showing her face and medic's badge to the guards on either side of the door. They did not acknowledge her, but neither did they move to stop her as she slid the door open and stepped inside, closing it carefully behind her before allowing herself to look at the figure on the bed.

He didn't look much different from when she'd seen him yesterday, though his bandages had been changed; he still looked pretty awful. Stepping a bit closer, she saw that he was bound tightly to the bed—so tightly that blood was seeping through his bandages where the bindings held him down.

For a long while she just stared down at his still face. _I can't believe he's really here… _ She traced gentle fingers over the smooth curve of one high cheekbone, weaving in and out of the multiple cuts that marred his once-flawless skin.

_Still so beautiful…_

She was jolted out of her reverie when her sensitive ears caught a sudden, slight shift in his breathing pattern; it deepened and quickened, and that could mean only one thing: he was awake. Hastily she snatched her hand away and took a half-step back, heart pounding. Watching his face carefully, she saw his eyelids flicker with movement, though they remained closed.

"Sasuke-kun?" she whispered, taking a step forward and cautiously reaching out a hand towards him; he didn't respond when she lightly placed that hand on his chest, though Sakura was almost certain that he was awake. Nonetheless she let her eyes drift closed as she checked his internal organs once more, then fell to work mending a few of the other lesser injuries that she'd passed over the previous day. Sleep had replenished a large portion of her chakra (though she _was_ pretty hungry now that she thought about it), and she knew that she had regained enough to take care of a significant amount of the Uchiha's wounds.

Digging out a scroll from her medic's coat, she began working on one of his broken arms--the one with only a single fracture--and she was just putting the finishing touches on the newly restored limb when the clatter of hard, resolute footsteps sounded from the hallway. She just had time to whip the scroll back into her pocket before the door slid open forcefully, revealing a fuming Tsunade; Sakura caught a glimpse of an apologetic-looking Neji over the blonde woman's shoulder before she and six ANBU strode into the room, closing the door behind them. (Naruto, Sakura correctly assumed, had been left at the security checkpoint just inside the hospital's entrance.)

Tsunade did not look at all pleased to see her ex-apprentice there, but other than the intense scowl she gave the pink-haired kunoichi, she withheld her thoughts on the matter. "Move away from him, Sakura," the Godaime said in a low voice. "Better yet, get out of here. Now."

Sakura hesitated. There was absolutely no way that she was going to leave this room willingly (the stance that Inner Sakura was screeching in her head even now), but outright insubordination like that would undoubtedly get her into trouble, and thrown out of the room to boot. _Well, where direct defiance would be taken badly, indirect defiance and negotiation can sometimes get away with things…_

"Tsunade-shishou, I promise I won't get in the way…" Slowly she backed into the corner farthest from the bed, holding her open hands up in front of her shoulders. "I won't get in the way," she repeated, "so please let me stay. If you don't…" Sakura's eyes narrowed, "well, you trained me, so you know that I can promise you'll have a _hell_ of a time getting me out of here."

There was a brief rush of smoke, and Sakura tensed as she suddenly felt strong hands clamp securely around her wrists and upper arms; when the smoke cleared, she found herself being securely held by two ANBU members, with a third and a fourth crouching behind and before her respectively, their hands resting on their katana hilts.

"Very well then," Tsunade said brusquely, "but if you cause any trouble—"

"I won't, I assure you."

Tsunade merely grunted in response, her attention already focused on the still figure lying on the bed. She took a few measured steps forward, staying well out of his reach, though seeing how securely he was tied down along with how badly injured he was, Sakura didn't think that really mattered all that much.

"I'd like to keep this as simple--and quick and hopefully painless--as possible," the Godaime said, addressing one of her ANBU guards.

"Yes ma'am," the ANBU, obviously a female, replied as she stepped close to the bed and leaned over the motionless body of the Uchiha. "We _know_ you're awake," she purred, trailing a gloved hand over his chest, "but tell us what we want to know, and we'll leave you alone." A senbon needle suddenly appeared in her hand, and she began toying with it, dexterously threading it through her fingers. "There's a special truth serum on this…so you'll tell us what we want to hear whether you like it or not. You could spare yourself more pain by simply answering the questions you're asked." The needle flickered faster, flipping through her fingers at an impressive rate. "So. Who are you, anyway? _Are_ you Uchiha Sasuke…or are you someone _else?"_

The man on the bed gave no indication that he was even conscious; his breathing and heart rate remained steady and utterly unchanged. The senbon suddenly stopped deadly still, held poised and waiting.

"Who are you?" the ANBU repeated a bit more loudly.

Nothing.

_Sshukk._ A needle protruded from the bicep of the arm Sakura had just healed; the medic-nin clenched her jaw tightly as she watched the bandages around it slowly turning red.

"In case you thought I was bluffing…now you know that I'm not." A second senbon appeared in the ANBU's hand as quickly as had the first. "Would you care to answer now?"

Nothing.

_Sshukk._ The second needle joined the first.

"Come on now, I can do this _forever,_ but I doubt you have enough blood in you for us to do _that._ Answer."

Nothing once again.

_Sshukk._ Same arm, but lower, on the forearm. Sakura bit her lip but remained silent.

"If you really _are _Uchiha, you aren't doing yourself any favors by staying silent, you know…"

_Sshukk sshukk sshukk…_

Sakura looked away, not wanting to see where the newest needles had gone_. This is sick,_ she thought. _I know we have to figure out whether or not this is really Sasuke, but there has to be a better way!_

Apparently Tsunade thought so as well. "That will do," she said, waving the ANBU back and moving to stand at the edge of the bed herself; the female Black Ops member seemed almost reluctant as she obediently stepped back.

"Well," the Godaime said to the unresponsive raven-haired figure, "considering your apparent penchant for silence, I'm actually starting to believe that you might truly be Uchiha Sasuke. The _other _one would have been spouting off all sorts of nonsense—he certainly wouldn't be wasting a chance to make things dramatic, or at least very tense."

No reply, of course.

"So…where have you been for the past ten years, Uchiha? And why come back now? Get tired of playing with your evil little friends?"

Still no response.

"I know you're awake, Uchiha," the blonde woman growled. "You can't pretend to be dead forever, and I am perfectly willing to let a traitor die without lifting a hand to help them, so if you've got something to say for yourself, you'd best do it quickly."

There was a long silence as the Godaime stared down at the Uchiha's body through narrowed, calculating eyes. At long last—

"Uchiha Itachi…is he dead?"

Sasuke's mouth tightened almost imperceptibly--the first movement he'd made since the Hokage and the rest had entered the room--but he didn't open his eyes or make any other sign that he'd even heard the question.

"Uchiha…I'm going to ask you one final question, and if you don't answer this one, I will be forced to take drastic action to ensure the safety of this village. _Where is Orochimaru?"_

No response.

Tsunade let out a long, tired sigh, then turned away, exchanging a meaningful look with the two ANBU at her sides, motioning them forward towards the helpless Uchiha.

Sakura's throat convulsed as they simultaneously drew their katanas, but somehow she managed to force his name out, the near-sob tearing through her constricted airway, _"Sasuke—!"  
_

"_Gone."_

It was the first word she'd heard him say since they'd found him, and it was rasped almost inaudibly.

Tsunade turned back and held up a hand to the ANBU guards, who stopped and lowered their weapons. "What do you mean by 'gone,' Uchiha?" she demanded.

"Tsunade-shishou, please…he's hurt…just…just leave him alone…"

"Gone," Sasuke repeated, wearily opening his eyes halfway to look up at the scowling Godaime Hokage. "You…don't need to worry…about him…any…any more…" He coughed weakly, fresh blood splattering across his pale lips and trickling down his chin and cheeks, and his head rolled limply to the side: he was unconscious once more.

"Tsunade-shishou…please…_please_…"

Though Sakura's plea fell on largely unsympathetic ears, the Hokage was sufficiently satisfied with the elusive rogue-nin's answer…for now.

"You may tend to him, Sakura," she said curtly, and the other ANBU who had been holding the girl back roughly released her arms, causing her to stumble forward. Her headlong lurch towards her old teammate was arrested sharply when she found herself held fast by one of the Hokage's strong hands, and by her even stronger gaze. "If he says _anything_ more that relates to Orochimaru or Itachi, or that is of any importance, you _will _report it to me immediately, understood?"

"Yes, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura murmured submissively, though it took every bit of self-restraint in her not to give into Inner Sakura's demand that she 'swat away the old hag's hand and get to work on Sasuke.'

"Good. And if he turns out to be dangerous, Sakura…you know what to do."

She swallowed hard and nodded once, and with that her old teacher and her ANBU escort left the young woman alone with her old teammate (though the female interrogation expert stepped in quickly to retrieve her senbon--and none too gently, either, earning herself a hard glare from Sakura).

_I know what I'm _supposed _to do, alright…but that doesn't mean I'll do it._

Setting her mouth in a grim line, Sakura stepped over to the bed and got to work.

* * *

She healed as much of the damage as she could without pushing herself over the brink into exhaustion once more (which was a lot, but unfortunately not everything—Neji had been right in his assessment of the extent of the Uchiha's injuries), having to settle for carefully rebandaging the rest to deal with later. Shaking her head at the sadistic tendencies of whoever had tied him down so cruelly, she cut him free--he was far too weak to even sit up, much less attack her, and with one of his arms broken in three places, there was absolutely no way that he could form any seals whatsoever. After healing the injuries the ropes had caused to his wrists and arms, she healed the new senbon wounds as well, then began checking his IV drip and the other typical hospital equipment that was clustered around his bed, just to be certain that everything was as it should be and that no careless mistakes had been made.

Glancing at the chart hanging at the foot of the bed to see what all they'd given him, she was not at all surprised to find that he hadn't been given any anesthetic whatsoever.

Just as she'd suspected. She'd have to remedy that, and quickly…

Just as she was inserting the needle into the port in his IV, his eyes suddenly snapped open again. Sakura blinked in surprise, giving a slight jerk back from both the bed and the IV, leaving the still-full syringe dangling from the clear tubing.

For a moment, something that resembled panic filled his eyes, then with a snap they turned a murderous black-flecked red as his Sharingan activated, scanning his surroundings quickly, almost frantically; then his eyes settled on her. She stood there awkwardly, wondering what was going through his head at that moment. What if he really _was_ dangerous as Tsunade had said? She had thought him too weak to need any restraints, and she really hadn't had the heart to leave him tied down, but…on second thought, it might have been a prudent move.

He'd been willing to submit to being the container of the most twisted and evil ninja they'd ever encountered just to increase his chances of being able to kill his older brother.

He had a tendency to overdo things, she had to remember that.

As suddenly as they'd activated, his Sharingan snapped back off. The faintest trace of the old disdain ghosted across his face, but even that was apparently quite taxing on his quickly waning strength. _"You,"_ he muttered in a hoarse whisper.

Sakura blinked in surprise as those dark eyes narrowed in…was that accusation?

What had she done now? What could she _possibly_ have done…?

"Why did you save me?" Anger gave him strength, just as it always had, and his words came out more powerfully, more forcefully.

"S-Sasuke-kun—"

"_Why did you save me? _I was supposed to _die! I should have died!"_ All but shouting now, he lurched forward in bed, forcing himself upright despite the recently bandaged wounds that covered his chest and abdomen. Weakly he pounded a fist into the bed. "I didn't want to come back here…I _never _wanted to come back here! I wanted to _die!_ I wanted to—!"

"_UCHIHA SASUKE!"_

His eyes widened at her outburst; her own ears were ringing from it, but she paid that no mind, glaring down at the heavily bandaged man before her.

"You haven't changed a bit…you stupid _idiot."_

He grunted, eyes going wide, and wavered suddenly, blinking once, the action slow; then with a cracked moan, he slumped backwards into his pillows.

She'd taken the opportunity to administer the anesthetic while he was busy having his little tantrum; he'd been so angry, he hadn't even noticed her hand move decisively to the syringe.

But then again, Haruno Sakura wasn't in ANBU for nothing.

_Stupid, _stupid_ idiot!_ she repeated vehemently, jerking the syringe from the IV port with much more force than was necessary before scrawling a few quick notes on the clipboard at the end of the bed, turning on her heel, and stalking out of the room.

* * *

And he stayed that way, eyes closed, totally motionless, long after he should have been awake. Sakura knew the many various medicines they'd pumped into him had worn off long ago, and that his sleep was normal and no longer drug-induced, but still he gave no sign that he was any more alert now than he had been when he'd been on all the medications.

Sakura was far from fooled, however—she _was_ a medic-nin, after all, and an exceptionally skilled one at that—and she could easily tell from half a dozen minuscule signs that the Uchiha was merely feigning unconsciousness, most likely to avoid having to have an actual conversation with her.

_Despite all that's changed in ten years' time, it's nice to know that some things never will,_ she thought rather bitterly as she glared down at Sasuke's motionless form, just barely restraining her swiftly-growing urge to thump him so hard that the world would start spinning the other direction. _ Well, at least he's recovered enough to recall that he doesn't like talking to me… that's…something, anyway._

But in spite of this knowledge, still she came in to sit with him, staying for hours every day to stare down at his pale, handsome face; she would talk to him as well, telling him things that she never could have told him under normal circumstances--he would've stalked off or told her to be quiet before she could have gotten out more than half a dozen sentences. But now he was a captive audience, and Sakura rather enjoyed their one-sided little chats, particularly since she knew beyond a doubt that he _was _awake.

And that wasn't all: with Inner Sakura snickering evilly, she would take his hand in both of hers each time she came in, caressing it with her thumbs, rubbing it gently, and not releasing it until she left. She relished this small action—it was something that she knew he never would have allowed had he been awake…or willing to admit that he was. Still, a part of her was surprised that he didn't tense up or jerk his hand away; she had been sure that it would bring him around and force him to own up to the fact that he was indeed conscious.

But he didn't. And still Sakura came, though she had begun to wonder if no reaction at all was actually worse than being pushed away. At least rejecting someone required that you acknowledge their existence.

Finally, about a week after Sasuke _should_ have been awake, Sakura got tired of the whole charade and brought out the serious artillery: she let Naruto into the room, and let him do whatever he pleased to his deceptively lifeless old teammate.

Even Sasuke couldn't pretend to be unconscious under _that _sort of abuse.

After over an hour of impressively irritating poking and prodding, the raven-haired Uchiha finally opened his eyes and growled in a voice rusty with disuse, "Stop it, dobe."


	3. Which Contains Some Madness

If Sakura hadn't been taking so much pleasure in tormenting him before, she would have felt pathetic for going to see Sasuke so often; now that he'd admitted that he was awake, she no longer had an excuse to give herself (or anyone else for that matter) for going to sit with him for hours on end.

It was just as well, she supposed. She'd been shirking a large portion of her regular hospital duties to spend so much time with him--irresponsible, she knew, but this was a special occasion, and besides that, she hadn't been asked to look at anything worse than a couple scraped knees and a sprained ankle since she'd gotten back from that last mission. (And she was quite sure that those patients would survive, though judging by their tears and the intensity of their wails, they had seemed to think otherwise.)

_On the other hand,_ she sighed, rubbing her eyes and looking up from her latest pile of paperwork,_ spending so much time with him might not be the best thing for my sanity…_

The past few days really had been incredibly frustrating. Half the time he almost seemed normal, like the same cold, self-absorbed Uchiha Sasuke who had left on his quest for vengeance ten years ago, and the other half, he was completely and utterly mad. During these strange spells, his eyes would glaze over, and he would murmur all sorts of nonsense. He didn't seem to know where he was--actually, he didn't really seem to care--and he didn't recognize her, or Naruto, or anyone else, though it was more like he didn't realize that they were even _there_. Seeing him in that disjointed state made her blood run cold; she wasn't used to seeing Sasuke out of control, at least not in that particular manner.

_What on earth happened to him to put him in this condition?_ Sakura wondered, but she'd had little luck thus far in getting any potentially useful information out of Sasuke himself, even when he was in one of his increasingly rare rational moments. If he _did_ happen to be lucid when she went in to check on him—even if her visit had a purely medical motivation—he just glared sullenly at either his hands or the floor, though she was sometimes privy to that withering expression as well. His responses to her various questions were terse and irritable, and he never seemed to stop glowering at her as she asked them.

Perhaps her little hand-holding trick had gotten to him more than she'd thought.

She glanced at the clock and sighed as she slowly got to her feet. It was time to check on him again.

_At least it's an excuse to get away from this paperwork for a while…wow, I'm _really_ starting to sound like Tsunade-shishou now,_ she thought ruefully as she made her way down the corridor and up two flights of stairs to the Uchiha's room.

She shook her head. Normally paperwork didn't bother her all that much; she knew that the current situation with Sasuke was to blame for making her so tense and unusually restless.

_

* * *

Well, which is it going to be this time, crazy or moody?_ Sakura wondered tiredly as she mounted the final set of stairs. There didn't seem to be any discernible pattern—so far as she could tell, his sanity came and went as it pleased, and the likelihood of finding him in possession of it was about as definite as the outcome of a coin toss.

Stepping into the room, she noted his unnaturally blank face—_crazy it is, then_—though she still greeted him as brightly as ever: "Hello, Sasuke-kun! How are you feeling?"

She'd asked him the same question when she'd come to check on him a few hours ago, but since she doubted that he was even aware of her presence in his current state, she didn't suppose it really mattered; he hadn't answered the question before anyway, other than with the customary dark glare and a slight twist of his lip.

This time he replied by simply looking up with wide, vacant eyes that never quite seemed to focus on her, and Sakura shuddered a bit as she checked his few remaining bandages.

_His gaze is so…empty…_

"You're nearly completely healed, Sasuke-kun! Isn't that good news?" she said aloud, forcing a cheerfulness and levity into her words that she didn't feel; had he been in his right mind at the moment, he would have seen through her false tone in an instant, but as it was, he merely continued to stare up at her unseeingly. "Can you even hear me, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said with a sigh, her affected brightness slipping away to be replaced by the helplessness and despondency that she really felt.

His dark, blank eyes slid away from her and slowly he turned his head to look out the window. "The only thing with any color is the sky…" he said, his voice low and detached.

Frowning slightly, Sakura leaned towards him, trying to catch his eye. "Sasuke-kun, what are you talking about?"

"...Everything else is the color of death," he went on in that same dead, distant tone; he didn't seem to have heard her question. "The sky stole the life from everything else, drew out the blood, and now wears it proudly as it watches the world lie beneath it, dying, bleeding…"

Concerned, Sakura went around to the other side of the bed, scrutinizing his face, though what she was searching for she didn't know; but whatever it was, she was disappointed--his face was as blank and expressionless as ever, his gaze trained in sightless fascination on the clear (and to her view) blue sky.

Her frown deepened. _What on earth is _that_ supposed to mean?_

"Sasuke?" She waved a hand in front of his eyes in another attempt to make him look at her; he didn't even blink. "Sasuke!" Finally admitting defeat, she stepped back with a growl.

_Most frustrating patient EVER._

Sakura gave a tired sigh and shook her head, leaving the clearly unbalanced Uchiha to stare vacantly out the window.

* * *

On returning to her office, Sakura had torn into her paperwork with a vengeance, determined not to allow anything distract her from finishing every last chart, record, and report as quickly and methodically as she usually did.

Unfortunately, she'd only gotten a third of the way through the rather sizeable stack when there was a knock on her door.

"Come in," she called absently, her mind still focused on the chart she was currently filling out. She glanced up distractedly as her door slid open and managed a quick smile for the woman who entered. "Hello Shizune-san!"

"Hello to you too, Sakura-chan, " the dark-eyed woman said, returning her smile. "Busy as usual, I see."

"Heh, always." Giving the heap of untouched paperwork before her a mournful glance, she turned her full attention to the woman before her. "What brings you here, Shizune-san? You look healthy to me, so Tsunade-shishou must have sent you."

"Yes, she did. She wanted me to give this to you." The older medic-nin reached into one wide sleeve and pulled out a scroll. Sakura gave her a questioning look as she accepted the proffered scroll, but Shizune just shrugged and gestured for her to open it. With a shrug of her own, Sakura did so, and found herself reading Tsunade's quick, untidy scrawl:

_Sakura:_

_Congratulations. Since so much of your time has already been dedicated to this end (and don't think I haven't noticed), I have decided to assign you a special mission: you are to care for and aid the recovery of Uchiha Sasuke. Until he can be pronounced completely healthy in both the physical and the mental capacities, he will henceforward be solely your responsibility._

_As he is not thought to be particularly dangerous, you are to assist him in any way possible. You are of course expected to report anything that he says, while sane or otherwise, that could prove to be advantageous in our continued search for Orochimaru and the few remaining members of the Akatsuki._

_ I know that things have been rather slow at the hospital of late, so I am requesting that you make this mission your primary focus; most of your other regular duties will be distributed among the other medic-nin (Shizune will be looking after most of your paperwork), though you will of course be notified if anything serious comes up and your considerable skills are required once more. You will be permitted to serve your night shifts, and will remain on call according to your regular schedule._

_Otherwise, however, you are to spend your work hours in caring for and helping Uchiha Sasuke recover his mind, or trying to find a way to restore it medically. (I will send you some books that I have on the subject; perhaps you can find something in them that I overlooked.)_

_To put it plainly, your mission's goals are as follows:_

_ 1) Determine what happened to Uchiha Sasuke to place him in the serious medical condition in which he was found,_

_ 2) Determine the cause and severity of his mental instability, and_

_ 3) Determine a course of treatment and carry it out as best you can._

_ My only suggestion concerning this matter is to take him to the places that you visited often and to have him spend time around people who knew him and were close to him—particularly Naruto and yourself, though I suppose Kakashi might count as well. Hopefully spending enough time with him and taking him to these locations will trigger a reaction of some sort that might help him fully regain his sanity._

_ Good luck, Sakura. If anyone has a hope of curing him, it's you._

Even though she'd finished reading, Sakura continued to stare down at the scroll for a long moment, lost in thought. To be honest, she was rather surprised that Tsunade was doing this--was the Uchiha clan really that important to Konoha?--and she wasn't entirely happy with the assignment either. Sasuke's erratic behavior was quite frustrating, and neither side of his currently dual personality was particularly pleasant (in fact, she was starting to think she might prefer him crazy).

And yet...he _was_ her friend. She owed it to him to try, at least.

"Well?" Shizune pressed, looking at Sakura expectantly.

Sakura sighed and closed her eyes, slowly crushing the unwrapped scroll in her hands into a hopelessly mangled heap. "I accept."

* * *

Sakura spent the following weeks taking Sasuke to various places around Konoha. They visited every possible place that she could think of where they'd spent any considerable amount of time as a team, and even a few where they hadn't, but nothing seemed to trigger any sort of response from Sasuke other than boredom and deep annoyance (when he was mostly sane), or blank stares and mumbled cryptic phrases (when he was not at all sane).

At first Naruto had often come along with them--particularly on the days they visited Ichiraku--and Kakashi had even come along once (though Sakura suspected that really he'd just happened to run into them, and had decided to tag along), but after two weeks of nothing more than vacant looks, or else constant animosity from Sasuke, even the energetic blonde had become a little less enthusiastic about Sakura's "special mission". Nonetheless, he stubbornly continued to show up for their daily "outings" until a rather lengthy mission of his own forced him to give it up, at least for a while.

With Naruto gone, Sakura found that she could focus more closely on her patient, though at times his perpetual dispassionate attitude wore her patience perilously thin; and if she was going to get anywhere with this case, she _had_ to focus. Still, Naruto's bright, energetic presence had worked as an effective counterbalance for the Uchiha's cold reticence, and more than once Sakura found herself wishing that the blonde bombshell was there to break an uncomfortably long silence.

By the end of the third week, a feeling of defeat had begun to settle around Sakura's shoulders: no matter what she tried, nothing seemed to trigger any real, noteworthy response.

She'd taken him to the bridge where they'd often waited for hours for Kakashi-sensei to arrive for their training sessions; all that he'd done was stare moodily down at his wavering reflection and block out her talk of the old days.

She'd taken him to Training Ground Three, where they'd officially become genin--the first place that Team Seven had worked together, essentially the beginning of everything. Their acceptance of each other, their lives as true shinobi, their bond of friendship, all three had begun at that very spot...and Sasuke showed not a flicker of interest in the place.

She'd taken him to Ichiraku numerous times (due to Naruto's insistence), as well as every other restaurant, tea house, or food stand that she could think of that they'd visited more than once back in their old Team Seven days. Sasuke had scarcely touched most of what was placed before him, though Sakura tried to recall what he'd always ordered (and since she'd been practically obsessed with him back in those days, more often than not, she could).

She'd even taken him to the high chain-link fence surrounding the Forest of Death, but even that had received little more than a cursory glance followed by a cool, resentful stare for Sakura. She noticed, however, that his left hand unconsciously moved to the back of his neck, as if just being near the place where he had first encountered Orochimaru caused some sort of reaction from the cursed mark still plainly visible on his pale and otherwise perfect skin.

No matter what she tried, nothing seemed to work. (In fact, so far the biggest reaction he'd had to _anything_ was when Ino had spotted them in the street on the way back to the hospital and had rushed to "glomp" her old childhood crush; his response had been a surprisingly forceful "GET OFF!")

Her most recent attempt had been a picnic on one of the grassy hills around Konoha, something they'd done several times as a team, and something that Sasuke had always seemed to enjoy in his quiet, reserved way.

The whole thing actually seemed to be going unusually well--Sasuke was lucid, yet he hadn't glowered or snapped at her once the entire day, and she'd actually gotten a faint smile out of him once or twice with her recollections of various amusing situations that they had found themselves in, most often due to Naruto's (at that time) incredible stupidity. Sasuke had also seemed to enjoy the meal; usually he just picked at his food, but this time he'd eaten his entire share, and some of hers as well when she offered it to him. (She felt particularly smug about this since she'd made the entire meal herself, though she had actually been a bit surprised that everything had come out so well: as a rule, she wasn't really much of a cook, but how wrong could you go with tamagoyaki and onigiri, after all?)

Everything had gone perfectly until they were both lying on their backs staring upwards at the clouds passing overhead.

"That one looks like a shuriken, doesn't it, Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn."

"And that one looks like...it looks kinda like a rabbit, see the ears and the tail? And right above that there's a...hmm..." She squinted at it and turned her head a bit. "I think it looks a little like a tree..." Sasuke made no reply this time, but Sakura pressed on regardless. "That one that I said looked like a shuriken before looks like a sheep now...and the tree is starting to look more like...hey, it looks kinda like the Uchiha clan symbol now, like a paper fan. Don't you think so, Sasuke-kun?" she asked, twisting around to look over at him with a smile. She was surprised to find that his eyes had narrowed, and his face had taken on a mixture of pain and regret as he stared up at the drifting clouds slowly swirling above them.

"…If only I could close the sky…" he murmured absently, prompting Sakura to take a closer look at his eyes; sure enough they were glazed and distant, as cloudy as the blue dome arching overhead.

"Why would you want to do that?" she asked carefully, propping herself up on one elbow to get a better look at him. When he was in one of these moods, she had found that if she asked him about what he'd said at just the right moment, he would usually answer her. She saw it as something of a breakthrough--at least he was responding to her while in that strange, incoherent state--though his replies usually made little more sense than the statement she'd asked him about in the first place.

"The sky is the color of eyes," he whispered, his troubled expression deepening into something akin to horror. "…_His_ eyes…and...my eyes…" His hands suddenly flew to his face, fingers pressing frantically into the skin around his eyes. "My eyes, I can't close them…it's the sky, they're stuck in the sky!" His fingers flexed and he dragged them sharply downwards, leaving several surprisingly deep gashes; but Sakura, who was instantly at his side, caught his wrists and pulled his hands away from his face before he actually managed to claw at his eyes, which seemed to be his true intent. "Let me go!" he snarled, trying in vain to twist away from her.

"No."

"I _have_ to close my eyes! If I do, then he won't want me anymore, and we'll be safe. He'll just leave us alone! Let me _go!"_ he shouted, redoubling his efforts to free himself.  
Had he been in his right mind, he would have realized how futile his actions were. "No," Sakura repeated calmly, easily keeping him pinned down, and inwardly thanking Tsunade once again for teaching her the monstrous strength technique.

He continued to strain uselessly against her for a while, then his struggles subsided; thinking he'd given up, Sakura slowly began to relax her grip when Sasuke gave a sudden, violent sideways jerk. Surprised, she lost her balance, falling forward on top of the once again wildly thrashing Uchiha, momentarily too surprised to effectively apply her chakra. As she recovered herself and struggled to subdue him once more, several strands of her long pink hair slipped over her shoulder and brushed against his face; instantly he froze. Slowly he raised a hand, his wrist still firmly in her grasp, and loosely twirled a single strand around one finger; then with a sigh he went completely limp, arms falling lifelessly to his sides.

Sakura hesitated, not entirely convinced that he wasn't faking again, but when he gave no further signs of movement, she released his wrists and pulled back, though she remained close by just in case.

She found she needn't have worried, however; Sasuke stayed flat on his back, staring fixedly up at the slowly deepening blue sky, and he did not move again until the cloud-kissed cerulean had faded into a deep, star-pricked indigo and she told him that it was time to go, hauling him to his feet and guiding him carefully back to the hospital.

* * *

Even though he had made a complete recovery--physically, at least--he was still staying in his original room in the hospital. Sakura didn't really like the idea of keeping him there, but she knew that his behavior was far too unpredictable for him to be allowed to live on his own--he _was_ crazy after all, and heaven knew what he might do if no one was watching him (as their most recent outing had demonstrated quite well). The bottom line was that he was currently unfit to live by himself, and that left very few alternatives.

Even if he _had_ offered to take in his former student (which he hadn't), Sakura thought Kakashi-sensei was just a little too busy (and irresponsible) to handle this sort of thing; and though it might have been convenient, Sasuke _certainly_ wasn't moving in with Sakura herself. Her apartment was small enough as it was, and with the state he was in, she honestly doubted if she could stand dealing with him ALL the time. It would be like bringing her work home with her--she would just end up babysitting him all day, every day, and regardless of their history, she knew she was not up to the task. She also didn't feel like dealing with all the gossip that doubtless would have sprung up all over Konoha as a result, or the royal fit that her mother would have pitched when she found out that her 'little girl' was living with a man, even if it _was_ just to make sure he didn't seriously injure himself.

Naruto had quickly volunteered to let Sasuke stay with him, but Sakura had just as quickly vetoed that one—the blonde's apartment was nearly as small as her own, and with all the missions he'd been going on lately, he didn't spend all that much time there anyway. (And when he _was_ in Konoha, he was usually to be found in one of three places: the training grounds, Ichiraku, or the Hyuuga manor…and not necessarily in that order.)

So that left the hospital, and like it or not, Sakura reluctantly had to admit that it was really the only logical place for the decidedly unstable Uchiha to stay.

When they arrived back at the hospital, she found Naruto waiting for her in Sasuke's room, dozing off in one of the uncomfortable hospital chairs, still wearing most of his ANBU uniform as well as all the sweat and dirt he had acquired during the mission. _ He must've just gotten back--didn't even take the time to shower or change...typical Naruto, _Sakura thought with a smile as the blonde gave a quiet snort, blinking sleepily as she and Sasuke entered the room.

"Hey," she said, shooting him a warm smile as she guided the disinterested Sasuke over to his bed; he allowed her to pull him along, following her listlessly and not even sparing a glance for the blonde man seated on the other side of the room who he had once called his closest friend.

"Hey Sakura-chan," Naruto replied with a sleepy grin. He rose and stretched languidly before sauntering over to stand beside her, watching her help the apathetic Uchiha into bed. "No changes, huh?" he asked quietly as she pulled off Sasuke's shoes and drew the covers up over her vacant-eyed patient.

_Like a mother caring for a child, _he couldn't help but think as she gently brushed a strand of hair out of the Uchiha's dark eyes.

Sakura gave a quiet sigh and shook her head. "Nothing worth mentioning." Looking up at him, she managed a weak half-smile. "Come on. I'll give you your post mission check-up so you can go home and change."

"Wrong!" he said, following her out of the room and shutting off the light as he went, pausing to call back a clearly facetious "Sweet dreams, Sasuke-_chan!"_ before closing the door and running after his pink-haired friend. "You give me the check-up so I can take you out to Ichiraku for supper!"

"Asking me out again, Naruto?" she asked with mock severity. "What would Hinata-chan say?"

He ruffled her hair playfully as he fell into step beside her, grinning at her indignant squeak of protest as she knocked his hand away. "Ah, she doesn't mind, you know that. She trusts me."

"Hmm, and here I thought Hinata-chan was _smart."_

"Keep it up and I'll make _you_ pay for supper, Sakura-chan."

"Heaven forbid," she chuckled, smoothing her hair down again. "I don't think my wallet could take that kind of hit, even if it _is_ just ramen. How many bowls are you up to now?"

"Seven," he stated proudly as she led him into her office and sat him down on the bed.

Sakura shook her head--she was stuffed after just one of the huge bowls, and Naruto had always eaten two even when they'd been younger. _Where does he put it? _she wondered as she quickly gave him the necessary once-over, running a critical eye over his well-toned and (thankfully) largely uninjured body. _Hinata-chan certainly got lucky, _she thought with a small grin as she healed a couple minor cuts and bruises on his toned arms and muscular back.

"Finished," she said, making a few final notes for the report she'd have to write up later, stepping away and turning her back to him as he slipped his shirt back on.

"Great!" Naruto said, hopping up and grabbing her hand to practically drag her out the door and down the hall. "Let's _go!"_

* * *

Sakura let out a long sigh as she settled herself on the stool beside Naruto, earning herself a questioning look from the blonde.

"Tired?"

"Just a bit," she mumbled, slumping forward to rest most of her upper body on the countertop. "Aren't you? You just got back from a mission, after all."

"Nah, my mission was _booooring," _he said, childishly drawing out the 'o', his face displaying a matching pout. "I would rather have been here with you and Sasuke. What'd you do today, anyway?"

"I took him into the hills for a picnic and some cloud watching," she said, smiling as Naruto's pout intensified; he'd liked their Team Seven picnics just as much as Sasuke. "He seemed so _normal _today, I thought he might actually be...you know, getting better...and then he suddenly went into 'crazy mode' again, as you saw for yourself." She sighed again, resting her head on the blessedly cool countertop. "I don't know what to do, Naruto...I just don't know if there's any way to help him—"

"Don't give up."

She raised her head to find him looking at her, determination alight in his blue eyes, his expression unusually stern. "Huh?"

"Don't give up on him. Like Tsunade-baa-chan said, if anyone has a chance of helping him, it's you." His hard expression melted back into his usual warm smile. "So don't give up."

"I won't," she said, her voice echoing the determination that she had seen reflected in his eyes moments before, and she felt a confident smile stretching across her lips. "Not ever."

"Now _that's_ my Sakura-chan," he chuckled, ruffling her hair again and laughing a bit as she yelped and swatted at him in mock-irritation.

Sakura was nearly half done with her meal, and Naruto was well into his third bowl of ramen when she asked him about his mission again.

"Not 'llowed t' shay much, uf courshe—" he said, giving her a clear view of his mouthful of half-chewed noodles.

"Of course," Sakura cut him off quickly, hoping to give him time to finish chewing and swallowing. "But you said it was boring...why was that?"

Naruto scowled and finished off his bowl before answering, "Ah, I got paired with Neji again."

Sakura blinked at his disgruntled tone. "What's wrong with that? I thought you liked Neji-san."

"I _do_ when he's not being an arrogant bastard," the blonde said petulantly, his face temporarily brightening as he eagerly slid his fourth bowl, which Ayame had just placed before him, a little closer. "And he's _always_ an arrogant bastard on missions. He talks like he knows everything, just because of those eyes of his...and worst of all, he _always_ steals all the action!" Scowling once more, he shoved about half the noodles in the bowl into his mouth at once, then went on, "He shees 'em 'n' getsh there firsht 'caush uf thosh _eyesh, _'n' I jusht haf t' shtand back 'n' _watch_—_"_

"—Or you might get caught in the Kaiten Spin." Sakura rolled her eyes. "Mouth closed when you're chewing, Naruto."

"Shorry." He swallowed with a clearly audible gulp before starting in again, _"Plus, _he's been hanging around you a _lot_ lately, if you haven't noticed."

Sakura shrugged, mildly surprised that Naruto had noticed, and even more surprised that he had taken offense. "So what? We're friends. What's wrong with hanging out with him sometimes?"

He made a face. "It's _weird."_

"I hang out with _you_ all the time and _that's _not weird, so why is it weird for me to hang out with Neji-san?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed a bit. "Well, it's just that, if I didn't know any better, _I'd_ say—"

"I _hardly_ think that you could say much more than you already do, Naruto," a smooth voice suddenly cut in.

Sakura turned her head to see Neji standing behind them, a small, satisfied smile gracing his lips. Unlike Naruto, the Hyuuga had obviously cleaned himself up on returning from their mission, and was dressed once more in the traditional style that his clan favored.

Naruto growled something unintelligible (and most likely unprintable) and turned back to his ramen, clearly bent on ignoring the other man.

Mildly ashamed of his impolite reaction, Sakura shot him a dark look and punched him hard in the side (nearly causing him to spit his current mouthful back into his bowl) before beaming up at the unperturbed Hyuuga. "Hello, Neji-san!" she said brightly. "You look well."

"As do you, Haruno," he replied with a slight bow, eliciting another muffled growl from the direction of a certain blonde ninja.

"Your mission went smoothly, I take it?" Sakura went on, ignoring her old teammate's blatant irritation. "I couldn't get much out of Naruto about it, other than the fact that you 'hogged all the action' again."

"My deepest apologies," Neji said dryly. "Next time, I'll be sure to let some of them almost kill us so he can have a chance at them."

Naruto continued to sulk, finishing up his fourth bowl with an inordinately loud slurp and starting in on his fifth.

"How is Uchiha doing?" the Hyuuga inquired, ignoring the blonde in turn and focusing his attention solely on Sakura.

"He's the same," she said, gratified that he'd remembered to ask. He always did, though, whenever she happened to run into him, and she appreciated the fact that he actually seemed to care about her reply.

"Healthy though?"

She nodded.

"Good. I'm certain he'll come around eventually. You _are_ the one taking care of him, after all."

Beside her, Naruto made an unmistakable gagging noise.

"Why don't you _join_ us, Neji-san?" Sakura asked pointedly, sliding a threatening glare at her obnoxious best friend, whose short gargle of protest cut off instantly when he saw the look she was giving him. "Naruto's paying," she added, giving the glowering blonde a nasty smile.

"How very kind of him," Neji smirked, knowing full well that her invitation was an attempt to both to make up for and retaliate against the Kyuubi container's poor behavior. "Thank you, Haruno. Don't mind if I do."

_ Now that I think about it, _the pink-haired kunoichi thought as he settled himself on the stool beside her and placed his order, _Naruto's right--I _have_ seen quite a lot of Neji-san lately. I wonder why?_ Of the various possibilities that wandered across her mind, one in particular caught her attention, bringing her thought process to a grinding halt. _Oh, no...surely not. He couldn't--he couldn't possibly..._ Her wide-eyed gaze darted towards him quickly, then away just as rapidly. Shaking her head at her overactive imagination, Sakura busied herself once again with her food._ It can't be anything like that. He's probably just concerned about me because we're on the same ANBU squad, that's all, _she thought, sneaking another quick sideways glance at the tall Hyuuga. _I mean, there's no way that he could... _She attempted to take yet another surreptitious look at the man beside her only to find him looking straight at her. _Damn it, I _always_ forget that he can see everything! _A sudden, guilty blush threatened to rise to her cheeks beneath his calm, unreadable gaze, but she stubbornly fought it back, determined not to divulge her embarrassment at being caught staring once again by the handsome man beside her.

"Was there something you wanted, Haruno?"

"N-no," she quickly averted her gaze back down to her bowl, feeling her cheeks warm slightly as she lost her battle with the blush.

"Are you certain? That was the third time you've looked at me like that in the last five minutes." Sakura choked quietly on her ramen, evoking a low chuckle from the Hyuuga genius. A small smile turning the corners of his perfect mouth, he leaned closer, which did nothing to help her fight back her quickly-deepening blush, and murmured in a low voice. "Or did you forget what I said about _staring, _Haruno?"

"N-no…" she said again, keeping her head down; he was so close, she could feel his warm breath whisper across her flushed cheek.  
_  
Is he..._flirting _with me?_

Slowly she turned her head to look at him, putting their faces mere inches apart, her eyes searching his face for his intent, her own clearly displaying her slight confusion. Those blank eyes were so hard to read...but the laugh lines crinkling around them and the smirk on his lips weren't.

_He's teasing me!  
_  
But before she could really decide how she felt about that (Inner Sakura was currently vacillating between raging indignation and a highly unusual bashfulness), his ramen arrived, and he calmly removed himself from their unusual proximity, turning his full attention to his meal. Sakura, however, continued to stare at him uncertainly for a moment, feeling bewildered and a little off-balance.

She allowed her eyes to trace his handsome profile once more before turning back to her own meal with an inward sigh._ Heh. Yeah right, Haruno...keep dreaming._

* * *

"What did you dream about last night, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked quietly. She was on call tonight, so she was performing the usual nightly rounds, and since Sasuke was the last patient on her list, she didn't feel at all guilty about lingering a bit in his room.

"...Nothing."

"It _wasn't _nothing--you were thrashing around, and you...you were calling for your mother..."

He glared at her, as if his restless sleep was somehow _her _fault, then looked away sharply. "It's none of your business."

She gave an exasperated sigh and shook her head. "Sasuke-kun, if you don't tell me about your dreams, then I can't help you—"

"I don't want your help."

"But—"

"Leave me alone."

With quiet growl she turned and left the room, closing the door a bit more forcefully than was necessary. She knew she wouldn't get anything else out of him anyway when he was in one of _those_ moods, so there was really no reason to stay.

_His nightmares must be pretty bad if just mentioning them causes that kind of reaction._

Nightmares. Yet another issue that the unfortunate Uchiha had apparently developed. Though Sakura hadn't observed many of them firsthand, she suspected that he'd had them every night since they'd found him: when she came to check on him early in the morning, she never failed to find him twisted up in the bedclothes, his brow covered in sweat, muttering unintelligibly as he tossed and turned in his sleep.

_As if the unpredictable bouts of madness and the constant mood swings weren't enough, _Sakura snorted as she settled herself at the desk in that floor's nurse's station to read through yet another book Tsunade had sent her about mental instabilities commonly found in young, primarily male, ninjas. _This is the third one this week. Where does she _find_ all these?_ Sakura herself had checked out everything she could find on the subject from the Konoha library, but there hadn't been much, and she had yet to find anything remotely useful. Most of the books she'd found were either basic guides for discovering the presence of said illnesses (she'd returned those--she was _quite _certain that Sasuke was mentally unstable), or else techniques to help the affected person and the ones close to them deal with the illness (Sakura had returned all of those books as well, but she was beginning to rethink that move).

She'd been reading for a little over two hours when she caught herself nodding off. _Can't have that, _she told herself sternly, giving a mighty yawn as she stood to stretch her cramping muscles. _I'd better get some tea or something, or I really _will _fall asleep. Working with Sasuke must've drained me more than I thought..._ Yawning again, she made her way down the corridor.

She'd just reached the stairwell when she the screaming started.

* * *

"No,no,_ no,_ I _won't_ live this day again! I won't, I _won't!"_

Everything was black and white, nightmare images that were burned into his brain. He was the only one moving, the only one still alive, and no matter where he ran, no matter how quickly he moved, he always found himself surrounded by nothing but a darkness as thick and black as pitch and more of the endless, brutally slaughtered bodies.

Even the blood was black, and it was everywhere...spilled out on the ground, splattered up on the buildings, and—oh God, his hands, his _hands, _they were _covered_ in it—  
_  
"No!" _he nearly sobbed, _"no, _this isn't what I wanted! I won't go back to this! _Don't, _don't make me_--no!_ Stop it, stop it, _stop--!"  
_  
"Sasuke!"

Firm hands were shaking him, and a familiar voice called his name, jerking him awake.  
_  
"Sasuke! _Wake up! You're having another nightmare!"

Bewildered, he looked up into calm, caring green eyes, and he felt his emotions wavering on the edge, threatening to push him over into the familiar disjointed madness once again. "Sakura…" he whispered, for once not caring that fear shone plainly in his eyes, only half conscious that her hand was wrapped firmly around his own. "I don't want to dream that dream ever again...I don't want to go back there." He suddenly groaned and doubled over as if in pain, eyes closing tightly; he clutched her hand almost desperately as he half-gasped, "I run and I run and I run, but they always die…they're always dead before I can do anything, before I can stop him…"

"Shh, it's okay...it was just a dream, you're awake now," she murmured, rubbing his shoulder comfortingly with her free hand. "I'm here, don't worry--you're not alone."

"...But it _wasn't_ just a dream, Sakura." The eyes he slowly turned up to her were full of pain, but unmistakably clear; he was fully in control of himself...for the moment at least. "It _really happened_." His hand was trembling in hers. "It happened...and it was _my_ fault..."

She shook her head bemusedly. "Sasuke-kun, I...I don't understand..."

All at once his eyes narrowed, and his face hardened back into its usual implacable mask. "Trust me...you don't want to."

He gave her hand one final squeeze, and then he was gone again, lost once more in the twisted maze of his own mind.

Sakura watched with a fascinated sort of horror as the rationality slowly faded from Sasuke's eyes, leaving them with the by now quite familiar blank expression. "Sasuke," she murmured sadly, running gentle fingers through his surprisingly soft bangs, brushing them away from his face.

His eyes gradually focused on her face once more, though as she expected, the spark of lucidity that she so desperately searched them for was totally absent. _"Kaa-san..." _he whispered, eyes widening slightly. He reached out a tentative hand to gently grasp a lock of her long hair, letting it slip slowly through his trembling fingers as he lowered his hand once more.

Sakura had decided to let her hair grow out again about two years ago. She had liked her short, spunky haircut, but after being mistaken for a fifteen-year-old more times than she cared to admit, she had decided that enough was enough. She knew that she looked older with her hair long, and besides, she'd kind of missed it. She couldn't know, however, that the way she wore her hair now was, as it had been before, almost exactly like Uchiha Mikoto's, and in the darkness of the hospital room, its pale pink hue was dulled enough to at least faintly resemble a deep black...the hair color of Sasuke's mother.

"Kaa-san," he said a bit louder. "I...I'm sorry..."

"Sasuke," Sakura began quietly as his hand tightened convulsively around her own, "Sasuke, I'm not..."

_ "I'm sorry!"_ He let out a muffled sob, burying his face against her and wrapping his arms around her comfortingly warm and solid form. Sakura blinked in surprise at his sudden embrace, but did not move to pull away; she could feel his hot tears already soaking through her shirt. "If I'd only been there...if I'd only been stronger, then maybe...maybe..." He tried to pull her closer, and Sakura hesitated for a moment before allowing him to do so, seating herself on the edge of his bed. "I'm sorry!" he suddenly burst out once more. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you…it's my fault…it's _all_ my fault, mine, _mine!"_

"It wasn't your fault," Sakura found herself murmuring, instinctively returning his embrace, rubbing one hand across his back soothingly. "There was nothing you could have done."

_ "No!_ At the very least, I could have died protecting you...but he robbed me of that, too. He robbed me of _everything _I ever had, everything I ever _wanted."_

"You still have your friends." She wasn't really sure that he could hear her, but he'd been responding thus far, so she figured it was worth a try. "And you still have your memories."

"Empty. Memories are as empty and hollow as song...everyone sings the words, but no one believes them. They're swallowed and then spit back out, used up and then abandoned." He shook his head mournfully. "There's no worth to such things."

"What about your friends, then?" Sakura persisted, ignoring his senseless rambling and focusing on trying to truly reach him.

"They don't understand...they just don't understand."

"Maybe they would if you'd talk to them about things more often."

"They _can't_ understand," he said a bit more insistently.

"How do you know?"

He didn't seem to have a reply for that, though she supposed that perhaps he might not have heard her at all; she couldn't be entirely certain one way or the other.

The ensuing silence stretched out for so long that Sakura was almost certain he'd fallen asleep when she heard him muttering again: "I found my own way, but it was already too late...all the clocks stopped long ago, and now I'll never catch up...and now _their_ death is my fault as well."

"It was _not_ your fault, Sasuke." Sakura felt like she was reasoning in circles, like she was doing nothing more than repeating herself, yet none of what she said seemed to sink in no matter how many times she said it. _ Maybe he _isn't _listening after all... _"Why do you insist on blaming yourself for something that was out of your control?"

"Because it really _was_ my fault this time. Even _you_ can't know, Kaa-san...at least I hope you don't...but I'm sorry for it, I wish I could take it all back..._God,_ why didn't he kill me? I thought he _would, _thought I would be dead like I deserved...then none of this would have happened..."

"Sasuke, you should try to sleep now," she said with a sigh, starting to pull away. She was getting tired of debating his past--which she honestly knew very little about--with him; no matter what she said, or what assurances she gave, he didn't seem at all convinced or moved in the slightest.

"No," he whimpered, his arms tightening around her, and he raised his head to look up at her. "Don't...don't leave me...please, don't leave me."

Sakura stared down into his dark, pleading eyes, and found herself softening beneath the desperation in their beseeching gaze. "I won't," she said at last, tightening her own embrace just slightly. "I promise I won't ever leave you."

"But you already did..." he murmured sleepily, resting his head against her chest.

"No...you're the one who left, Sasuke-kun," she said softly. Looking down into his half-closed eyes, she thought she saw a momentary flicker of genuine recognition, but it was gone before she could be sure.

"Sorry..." he whispered, then his eyes drifted shut; within moments his breathing was soft and steady, and Sakura knew that he was asleep once more.

She waited awhile before attempting to extract herself from his embrace, hoping to allow him to settle more soundly into the arms of sleep; but at long last she started to move, slowly easing herself out of his grasp. She was nearly free when he let out a quiet moan, tugging her back and clasping her to him more tightly than before.

Sakura froze, again waiting until his breathing had evened out, then tried to pull away once again. As before he let out a muffled groan, and tightened his grip even more.

This pattern was repeated a few more times, but Sakura never seemed to get any closer to freedom; in fact, she realized with an inward groan, she had actually _lost_ ground--she was closer to him than ever, her last attempt having resulted in him nearly pulling her all the way up onto the bed beside him.

She gazed down into his face, which looked nearly angelic in its current level of peacefulness, and breathed a quiet sigh. Well, there was nothing for it--like it or not, she was stuck there for the night. She might as well get comfortable.

It was very cramped and uncomfortable for two people to share one of the narrow hospital beds, but Sakura had experienced worse, and if it helped Sasuke sleep, then she supposed it was worth it.

Moving slowly so as not to disturb him again, Sakura carefully swung her legs up onto the bed, then eased both Sasuke and herself backwards until they were both fully reclining; the side of his face was still pressed against her breastbone, his arms still encircling firmly her, his face still serene and utterly satisfied. She smiled gently, finally allowing herself to relax a bit, keeping her arms wrapped comfortably about his shoulders and resting her cheek on the top of his head.

Sakura had dreamed of falling asleep in the strong arms of Uchiha Sasuke for years; now, at long last, it was finally happening, though the circumstances were quite a bit different than what she had always pictured in her mind's eye. _So he thinks I'm his mother...great, just great. Not _exactly _the type of relationship I had hoped we'd have, but I suppose I should just take what I can get for now. It's not like he'll remember this in the morning anyway..._

The morning.

Clenching her teeth, she bit back a groan, praying that she'd wake up before anyone found them this way...most of all Sasuke himself. _I'll just have to hope that he wakes up crazy tomorrow._ She winced inwardly at the thought of the alternative. If he'd reacted so badly to her holding his hand, she didn't even want to _think _about how he'd react to finding her _sleeping_ with him.

_ Maybe I just shouldn't fall asleep..._

That seemed like the best idea, considering the position she was in, but to her lasting dismay she found it surprisingly comfortable, curled up with him as she was; before she knew it, she felt her eyelids dragging insistently downwards. She tried to push her increasing drowsiness aside, but their combined body heat in that tiny little bed made that task next to impossible. Before long, she drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep, arms still wrapped protectively around the Uchiha heir.

Sasuke passed the rest of the night peacefully, and if he dreamed, it was only about pleasant things.


	4. Which Contains Some Rainclouds

It was going to rain today; she knew it from the moment she stepped outside that morning.

She didn't quite know _how_ she knew since not the faintest wisp of cloud marred the perfect pale blue dome arching overhead, but there was a sort of restless tension in the air that whispered and warned of torrential rainfall in the near future. Sakura just sighed and went on her way, however: she was already late to the training grounds for her sparring match with Lee (and there was no chance that _he'd_ be late as well) so she wouldn't've have time to go back for her umbrella even if she'd remembered to buy a new one after her last one had broken a month ago.

_ Oh well,_ she though as she hurriedly went on her way. _I'll just have to hope it doesn't rain until later..._

* * *

Sometimes, she hated being right.

A very tired, very muddy Sakura trudged wearily down the streets, scarcely seeming to notice the rain pouring down on her, soaking her already-wet clothing even more. _At least it's getting the worst of the mud off of me, _she thought, stopping for a moment to stare dully down at herself and getting quite a bit of rainwater down the back of her shirt for her trouble.

Today was supposed to have been her day off--her first in quite a while--but she had decided to use it to get in some much-needed training instead. Looking after Sasuke and researching his condition had been taking up most of her time recently, and she felt that her training had taken a back seat ever since she had taken on her latest "mission."

Sakura had sparred with Lee before, but because of said mission, it had been a while since the last time. She _knew_ how fast the self-proclaimed "Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha" was, but somehow she always managed to underestimate him just a bit, and the results of that constant mistake never failed to be unpleasant.

The first time she'd ever approached him to ask for a bout a few years ago, he'd gone pale as a sheet, his already ridiculously round eyes somehow going even rounder and wider until Sakura had thought they'd fall right out of his head. He'd stammered and stuttered unintelligibly for a while, but Sakura had finally gotten it out of him that he didn't want to fight her because he was afraid of accidentally hurting her. Though she had found his concern to be gentlemanly and rather sweet, she had insisted that she'd be fine, to his near-desperately repeated refusals. After about ten minutes of getting nowhere, it was time to start playing dirty; but to her surprise, even the promise of a date wasn't enough to sway the stoic Lee. Finally, aggravated beyond reason, she'd drawn back her fist and smashed a rather sizeable hole in the wall scarcely a foot away from a _very_ surprised Lee, then posted her fists firmly on her hips. "I think I'll be fine," she had said, looking up at him with a tight smile. After that he'd had no choice but to agree to her "request" (though she'd had to nail him hard a few times during an actual fight before he'd stopped obviously holding back), and they'd usually had a bout once a week ever since.

Lee was by far the better of the two at hand-to-hand combat, but Sakura wasn't an easy opponent by any stretch of the imagination; he was a great deal faster than she, but if she ever actually managed to land a punch, the round was usually hers.

It had been well over a month since their last bout, however, and Sakura could clearly feel the evidence of that now: nearly her entire body ached so completely, she almost wished the rain was cold; but it was early summer, the start of the rainy season, so it was warm and almost sticky, though the viciously temperamental wind that blew it in stinging sheets against the windows of houses and the faces of the foolish few out and about was bitterly cold.

Sakura shivered, breaking out of her daze, and scurried for the nearest cover: the green tarp awning of a nearby curio shop. She shivered again as she pulled her hair out of the low, sloppy ponytail the rain had reduced her once-neat bun to, wringing what water she could from it before retying it in a (she hoped) less disheveled manner. She tried to wring some water out of her black tank top as well, but both the tank and her black shorts were rather form-fitting and resisted her best efforts to force any moisture out of them, though they _held_ it well enough, resulting in them being even more clingy than usual.

The wind seemed determined to drench her and keep her drenched however, and began periodically forcing the rain to fall almost horizontally to achieve this end; Sakura pressed back against the shop window, unconsciously leaving a wet smear across the glass, but when an especially strong gust spattered warm, wet drops over her feet and nearly up to her thighs, she decided to seek new shelter.

_ And just when I was starting to get dry, too..._

She darted quickly from awning to overhang to doorway, moving quickly but getting soaked again anyway. She was sorely tempted to go into an especially cozy-looking bookstore, but she doubted the proprietors would appreciate her dripping all over their nice clean floor or touching any of their precious books with her wet hands.

She'd paused in a tea shop to let an especially heavy torrent of rain pass by, and was about to dart out once more when a gentle hand caught her shoulder. A bit bewildered by the unexpected touch, she turned and found herself looking up at Hyuuga Neji.

She blinked slowly. "Uh...hi."

He snorted a bit at this greeting, his brow wrinkling as he took in her bedraggled appearance. "What are you doing out in this sort of weather, Haruno?"

Water dripped from her hair onto his hand, which he seemed to have forgotten to move from her shoulder. She averted her eyes and gave a little shrug, apparently reminding him of this fact, for he removed his hand rather hastily as she replied, "Today's my day off, and I just got done training. I got caught in it on my way...home." Actually, she'd been heading to the hospital to check on Sasuke, but for some reason she hesitated to admit that; it _was_ her first day off in a long time, after all, so she had no real excuse to be going to the hospital today.

She knew from the way that his pale eyes narrowed just slightly that Neji had probably seen through her lie, but at the moment she didn't care; she was feeling thoroughly dull and apathetic. She was tired, she was wet, she was sore, she was hungry, and on top of it all she knew she looked terrible, and in front of the immaculate-as-ever Hyuuga Neji, Konoha's most handsome and eligible bachelor, no less.

_ Wonderful. Just wonderful._

"I...have to go," she said, turning back towards the open door only to find Neji's hand on her shoulder once more, staying her.

"It's pouring. At least wait a while and dry off a bit before you go back out."

Sakura shook her head, refusing the pull of his hand on her shoulder as he tried to turn her back around. "I'm drenched already, it doesn't matter. I'll change when I get home."

"I'll buy you some tea to warm you up."

Now _there_ was a tempting offer.

"...Tea?" she said faintly, trying to hide the sudden shiver that ran through her; Neji felt it, however, and gently pulled on her shoulder again, succeeding this time in his attempt to turn her about, smiling down at her with an unusually obvious kindness.

"Yes. As much as you like. And whatever you want from the menu as well. This place has great tempura."

She felt a sudden smile pulling her lips inexorably upwards--the first to cross her face since it had started raining. "Are you..._bribing_ me? To stay and wait out the storm with you?"

A trace of his regular smirk tainted his otherwise pleasant expression. "I prefer to call it 'monetary encouragement'...though it's for your own good, so there's no reason for you to take offense."

"None taken."

"Good. Our table is this way," he said, heading for the back of the shop.

"Rough day at the training grounds, I see," he remarked in a deceptively casual tone as they settled themselves at a small table tucked in its own little nook at the back of the shop.

Sakura looked sheepishly down at her hands, which were folded neatly in her lap. "It was a bit, I guess...I'm a little out of practice, it seems, what with constantly taking care of Sasuke-kun, and Lee-san _is_ rather good—"

"_Lee_ did this to you?" Neji didn't attempt to hide his surprise.

Sakura couldn't help but chuckle at his reaction. "Yes, he did. At my repeated, and rather forceful, request."

The Hyuuga snorted. "If you can't beat _Lee_, then I've been giving you too much credit."

"Hey, that's not fair! And I _do_ beat him sometimes...just...not today...at all."

"You use only your taijutsu skills in these matches, I take it," Neji said, then paused as their waitress came by to take their orders.

"Yes," Sakura answered as the woman bustled off towards the kitchen, "otherwise I'd be having a much easier time with him. But I had a..._special_ reason for choosing Lee, and I was looking for challenging, not easy, so no ninjutsu or genjutsu allowed."

"If you were looking for a _real_ challenge, you might've asked _me._ After all," here Neji smirked almost wickedly, "Lee _still _hasn't ever managed to beat me."

The pink-haired kunoichi folded her arms over her chest, her face twisting with a vague sort of displeasure. "Naruto's right, sometimes you really _are_ a bastard."

Smirk still firmly in place, Neji chuckled. "So they tell me. But regardless, the offer still stands."

Sakura found herself smiling once more, though this time the expression was a bit more careful and shrewd. "Thanks," she said, allowing a bit of cunning to slip into her voice as well. "I'll...keep that in mind."

Before he could inquire as to what exactly she meant by that, their tea arrived, and after that she chattered on as brightly as ever about her current assignment, her hospital work, and Naruto--specifically about his relationship with Hinata. Though he had been determined not to allow her to sidetrack their conversation, this item caught Neji's interest enough that he engaged in a rather serious discussion about it ("She could do worse, I suppose," was his stance on the issue); when their food arrived, Sakura ate deceptively quickly while keeping the focus on Naruto and Hinata, and before Neji knew it, she was standing to go.

"Looks like the rain's let up for now," she said lightly. "Thanks for the food, Neji-san...even if it _was_ a bribe."

"My pleasure," Neji said, rising with her and bowing slightly.

She flashed him a winsome smile over her shoulder as she turned to leave. "Bye, Neji-san."

And with that she was off, leaving him feeling just slightly bemused. _How did the time go so fast?_ he wondered, watching her go. She had kept talking, then had gotten him so deeply interested in another topic that he never got a chance to question her about the rather devious tone of voice she had used when she'd said that she would keep his offer in mind...and if he asked her about it later, she could easily claim that she'd forgotten and play dumb. He smiled, knowing that he'd been manipulated, even if ever so slightly._ Masterfully done, Sakura...perhaps I really haven't been giving you quite _enough_ credit..._

Swallowing the last of his tea, he left the appropriate amount on the table, then made his own way out beneath the still-threatening skies.

* * *

Sakura did not particularly enjoy lying. She knew that every good shinobi had "the ability to hide the truth beneath a thin layer of deception" as Kakashi-sensei had once said during one of his brief moments of serious instruction, "just enough to be misleading, but not so much that the untruth is glaringly obvious." However, Sakura was pretty sure that he had meant for them to use this ability on missions and against real or potential enemies, not for personal situations and with their friends and peers. (After all, Kakashi himself had been a particularly wretched liar, at least when it concerned his dealings with Team Seven.) In any case, lying was not something that Sakura usually took any particular pleasure in; it was just something that she had proved to be naturally good at.

So after she left the tea house, she _did_ go home...but only to quickly wash her face, fix her hair, and grab a clean set of clothes for later (the ones she was wearing were already nearly dry) before dashing off to her original goal: the hospital.

The dark, low-hanging clouds roiling overhead promised more rain, urging the pink-haired girl to move even more quickly, and it was a good thing that she did; the first warm, fat drops fell to the ground just moments after she had stepped through the Konoha Hospital's front doors.

* * *

"Hey, you're awake," Sakura said with obvious surprise when Sasuke looked up as she stepped into his room, and unfortunately she had a good reason to be excited. She hadn't told anyone as of yet (though she knew she'd have to tell Tsunade soon), but his fits of madness were getting steadily worse, and if things continued as they had been, it would soon be quite rare for her to find him in a sane, self-possessed state.

But his eyes were unmistakably clear now, and perhaps just a trifle suspicious, leading Sakura to wonder just how much the silent Uchiha remembered of the previous night.

She had awakened before dawn, and after a brief moment of semi-panicked shock and bewilderment, she had recalled how Sasuke had asked her to stay, calling her "Kaa-san," pulling her close and not letting go, forcing her to spend the night there with him. Finding to her immense relief that he was still soundly asleep, she had finally managed to remove herself from his grasp and slip silently out of the room, heading for her apartment where she promptly collapsed in bed to catch a few more hours of precious sleep...though unbeknownst to her, his eyes had drifted partially open as she quietly slid the door to his room shut.

His eyes narrowed a bit as if he somehow knew what she was thinking about, and she blushed faintly beneath that piercing gaze before shaking off her embarrassment. It hadn't been _her _fault, after all.

"So...did you sleep well last night, Sasuke-kun?" she forced herself to say, successfully keeping the blush from returning to her cheeks. "Any more nightmares after I...came in to check on you?"

His accusatory glance hardened, and his mouth turned down a bit, but he made no reply.  
_  
Why did I come to see him again?_ Sakura wondered with a flash of irritation.

"I have today off," she said aloud, keeping her voice carefully neutral. "I didn't have to come here, you know."

"Then why did you?" Sasuke muttered darkly.  
_  
Good question, actually._

Sakura forced a cheerful grin onto her face. "Be_cause_ I wanted to take you out today--as a friend, not a patient."

**_Oh, THAT was a GREAT lie...now you're stuck with him for the day, as usual!_**

"I didn't think I'd get to, though, considering the...current circumstances..."  
**_  
Meaning since he's crazy most of the time now._**

"...But since you're really awake right now, it'll be fine! Just like old times."

The look he gave her clearly said that he didn't think things would _ever_ be 'just like old times' again, but she pretended not to see.

"Come on, get up! You have to listen to me, you know. I'm still your doctor, day off or not."

Looking rather irritated but bowing to the inevitable, Sasuke did as she said.

* * *

After explaining the situation to the nurses both at the floor and front desks, Sakura led the way towards the hospital entrance, happier than she'd been in quite a while. Sure, it might still be raining off and on, and she was still sore from her training earlier, but Sasuke seemed to be more in control of himself now than he had been in quite a while, meaning that they might actually get to spend some quality time together.

_ All we have to do is swing by Naruto's place, and then..._ Her thoughts trailed off as she looked back at Sasuke, who had stopped just inside the doorway of the hospital, staring out at the clouds overhead with wide eyes, and she could almost physically feel her levity drain away as she saw the tumult of emotions that were swirling in them. _Oh no...not again, not now..._

"No," he said, voice straining oddly. He clutched at one shoulder as if it pained him, but Sakura knew for a fact that he was completely healed--he didn't have a scratch left on him. "No! I won't go out in this. If I do, I'll find that they're really gone, all of them...that it wasn't a just dream."

"Sasuke," she said, returning to his side and taking his hand. "Calm down...stay in control. You can do this, Sasuke. Please...please stay with me." She knew how pathetic that last plea had sounded, but at the moment she didn't care: she would say nearly anything if it helped him stay in control this time.

He shook his head, eyes still clouded, and a shudder ran through his body as he fought some incomprehensible inner battle. "I—can't, Sakura," he gasped after a short while. "I—" Closing his eyes, he doubled over suddenly, ripping his hand out of her grasp to clutch at his head. A low, strangled moan broke from between his clenched teeth, and his entire body shuddered again, violently this time, prompting Sakura to throw her arms around him, her cheek pressed tight against his shoulder blade--both in an attempt to comfort and restrain him.

She held him until his trembling subsided, only then daring to pull back enough to look up into his face, though she was fairly certain of what she'd find: the all-too-familiar disinterested expression, along with dead, sightless black eyes glazed thick with madness.

One glance proved her suspicions to be correct.

Sakura sighed. Sometimes, she_ really _hated being right.

* * *

"Come on...come on out in it. It won't hurt you, it's just rain, you know that." She tugged on his arm again, this time with nearly enough force to dislocate his shoulder, but he still wouldn't budge.

The blank-faced Uchiha slowly shook his head. "No, not just rain...tears of blood from a scarlet sky..."

Sakura bit back a frustrated growl. Though Sasuke's reversion to his maddened state had disheartened her, she had sucked it up and taken him out anyway. She had been sorely tempted to turn him right around, march him back up to his room, and leave him there, and she very nearly had, but something about that just felt _wrong, _like she was abandoning him or punishing him for something he couldn't control.

_After all, it's not _his _fault he's crazy...well, actually it _is, _but still...I suppose he can't help it now..._

But regardless of who was to blame, this evening had not gone at all how she'd hoped it would. She _knew_ that Naruto was back from his latest mission, but the blonde was not be found either at his apartment or Ichiraku, which left the Hyuuga manor, and there was absolutely no way that she was going there. With the way things were going today, Sakura wasn't going to tempt fate by making another chance meeting with Neji an all-too-easy occurrence; she didn't particularly feel like explaining to the smirking Hyuuga genius why she was "babysitting" on her day off.

When Sasuke had refused to budge from the hospital's entrance, Sakura had gone to Shizune (who was currently in Sakura's office, neck-deep in paperwork) to borrow the older woman's umbrella. Sasuke had submitted to being led about beneath its negligible cover, though he'd insisted on carefully avoiding the puddles that had collected here and there on the street ("Don't splash in them, it'll stain. Blood is hard to wash out."); but when an especially strong and vicious gust of wind had turned the umbrella inside-out and they had darted beneath a very familiar green tarp awning, Sasuke had refused to venture out into the rain again, spouting off more of his rambling, delirious nonsense.

Sakura had had just about enough of that for one day.

"Come _on,_" she said, getting behind him and pushing him out from beneath the shelter. "It's just a light drizzle now. It's warm, so you won't catch cold."

For a long moment Sasuke just stood there, eyes half closed, staring up at the dark night sky as if the falling rain held some deeper meaning for him, something that he alone knew or could understand. Sakura stood in the rain beside him, feeling the tepid droplets slowly soak through her clothing for the second time that day, but unable to tear her eyes from his face and the expression of utter hopelessness displayed there. He might have been crying; the rain made it impossible to tell.

Finally she slipped one of her hands into his, and he followed its gentle tug, letting her pull him along down the street, his dark eyes focused immovably on their joined hands.

* * *

It was late by the time they returned to the hospital. Visiting hours were over, and the nurses and medic-nins working the night shift were starting to settle in at their stations. Still clasping his hand firmly in her own, Sakura towed Sasuke up the stairs and down the hall, finally disengaging their hands and leaving him standing there in the middle of his room. She snatched some towels from the linen cart in the utility closet down the hall and returned to find him still standing there in the middle of the floor, shivering and dripping and staring down at his wet, sandaled feet.

She approached him in a very businesslike manner, pulling his shirt up over his head, slipping his feet from his sandals and moving him out of the rather large puddle he'd made on the floor. Sasuke continued to stare at his feet as she patted him dry as best she could with one towel, wrapping another around his bare shoulders and tossing the first over the puddle as she stretched to towel his hair dry, though he was too tall for her to do a very thorough job. Her own hair held the water like a sponge and long, damp tendrils of it kept getting firmly plastered against her neck and the sides of her face, occasionally obscuring her vision somewhat.

Finally satisfied that she'd done what she could, she dug a change of clothes out of one the drawers in the bedside table and set them out for him on the bed. "Go ahead and change, Sasuke-kun, I'll be right back—"

As she turned to go, she slipped just a little in her wet sandals, not really losing her balance, but wavering noticeably. Before she knew it, a pair of warm, firm hands caught her shoulders, steadying her; but when they fell away and she turned back to look up at him, Sasuke's eyes were still vacant and turned firmly downwards.

"I'll be right back," she said again and backed out the door, catching up the bag with the change of clothes she'd brought from home earlier before making her way to her office, slipping off her soaked sandals to avoid leaving a watery trail in her wake.

Shizune had gone home for the night, thankfully, so she wasn't there to question the rather pitiful-looking kunoichi as she stumbled into her office. The hospital was cold, and Sakura was shivering pretty forcefully herself now, her hands clumsy and awkward as she fumbled to remove clothing, dry herself, and dress once more. _Neji should show up any time now, _she thought wryly as she slicked her long hair back into a quick, messy bun, _since he always seems to run into me when I look my worst. _But soon she'd finished cleaning herself up, and there was still no sign of her handsome ANBU teammate; nonetheless, she peeked cautiously out into the darkened hallway, glancing both ways just to be sure, before padding barefoot up the stairs and down the hall back to Sasuke's room.

She found the Uchiha sitting listlessly on the edge of his bed, head bowed, hair dripping onto the floor and his new clothes.

Something about that picture caused Sakura's mounting annoyance at her unfortunate ex-teammate to melt away, and with a tender smile she crossed the room to sit on the bed beside him, taking the towel from his limp hands and beginning a second attempt at rubbing his hair dry. She'd been working at it for a bit when she heard him give a quiet, half-hummed sigh; glancing down at his face, she found the expression it bore to be a deep contentment, his eyes closed and his mouth curved in a small, peaceful smile.

Still smiling herself, Sakura finished drying his hair, then deposited the wet towels in one of the hallway linen hampers and hung his wet clothes up to dry in the bathroom; finally she helped him into bed, whispering a quiet, "Good night, Sasuke-kun," before turning out the lights and leaving him to sleep.

* * *

Sakura let out a long, low sigh as she slid the door to his room shut, then just stood there a moment, staring at it meditatively. Remembering the comfort of the previous night, she had almost voluntarily climbed into bed with him again, but her common sense had prevented her from obeying that admittedly odd impulse. She knew she'd been lucky that she hadn't gotten in trouble for it the first time; she probably wouldn't be so lucky a second time.

She was very glad of her decision the instant she turned around: for standing behind her was none other than Hyuuga Neji.

**_ Again? _**Inner Sakura gaped, just as taken aback as the outer one. **_Isn't twice in one day a little much?_**

"N-Neji-san...what are you doing here?"

"Naruto told me I might find you here," he said quietly, giving her some unreadable look.

"Oh?" she replied, desperately wracking her brain for something to say, or at least for a logical reason for him to be there. _When in doubt, just ask. _"But why—"

"I came to walk you home," he said calmly, gesturing for her to accompany him as he turned to make his way back down the hall. "It's raining quite hard, and I know you don't have an umbrella. I didn't want you to get drenched again...for the _third_ time today," he said evenly, leaving Sakura to wonder just how much those pale, ghostly eyes had seen.


	5. Which Is A Bit Misleading

It had been a particularly bad week for Uchiha Sasuke in terms of his fragile mental health, which meant it had also been a particularly bad week for Haruno Sakura. Save for brief flickers of lucidity, the madness seemed to have overtaken Sasuke completely ever since that day in the rain: he stared like a zombie and wouldn't eat, forcing them to put him back on an IV.

Three days into that week, Sakura had had no choice but to inform Tsunade of the Uchiha's rapidly deteriorating condition as well as her own lack of success in finding any possible means of curing, or at least coping with or combating, the situation, resulting in a minor (for Tsunade) temper tantrum, in which a cup, a lamp, and both of Sakura's eardrums had met their untimely ends during the Godaime's rant--not about Sakura's lack of dedication to her mission (that was never in question), but about her temper and apparent lack of respect for her elders. (It had started when Tsunade snapped out, "There must be SOMETHING in all those books I sent you! Look again!" which prompted Sakura to respond with a rather irritated "But _you _couldn't find anything either!" and things had just gone downhill from there.)

On the fourth day, Sasuke had refused to get out of bed altogether, choosing instead to lie flat on his back and stare silently up at the ceiling, and nothing anyone said could move him; an irate Sakura had shown up at the training grounds a short while later and had thoroughly thrashed an unsuspecting Lee, and then Sai too for good measure.

On the fifth day, Sakura had carefully removed the dull-eyed Uchiha's IV and had hauled him physically out of bed and into the streets of Konoha, sitting him down on a bench and forcing him to eat the bento she'd prepared for him (he ate the onigiri once again, but left everything else largely untouched) before returning him to the hospital.

On the sixth day, he'd come along quietly when she came to collect him, and though perhaps he seemed a bit more lucid that day, he also seemed equally determined to be unpleasant, and didn't say a word to her the entire time they were together.

On Saturday, the seventh day, Naruto intercepted her on her way from the training grounds to the hospital, carefully steering her towards a particular restaurant he knew she liked and insisting that she come with him "since a bunch of our friends will be there! It's been a long time since we've all eaten together."

Though outwardly her submission was rather grudging, inwardly she was relieved. _**Yes! Finally a break from dealing with HIM!**_ Inner Sakura crowed (although still quite protective of Sasuke regardless of everything that had happened, Inner Sakura _still_ hadn't ever really quite forgiven the Uchiha for leaving, breaking 'their' heart, and making 'them' cry so many times).

She and Naruto had scarcely set foot in the restaurant when Lee appeared before them. After cheerfully greeting the taijutsu virtuoso, Naruto made a beeline for an already faintly blushing Hinata, who was sitting between Tenten and Kiba at the back of the restaurant, leaving Sakura alone to speak with Lee.

"Greetings, Sakura-san! You look as though you are feeling much better today!"

She summoned a bright smile, and was a bit surprised at how honest it felt. "Hello, Lee-san. Yes, I _am_ feeling better...and I'm really sorry about what happened during our last match. I was having a bad day and really wasn't myself..." She'd still been too upset (mostly at herself for taking her anger at Sasuke out on Lee) at the time to offer more than a quickly-muttered "sorry" and heal the worst of Lee's injuries. Ever since their first chuunin exam, she'd been friendly with and extremely kind to the taijutsu expert, so the thoroughness of the beating she'd given him came as quite a surprise to everyone who saw or heard about it, and later that day when Sakura ran into a justifiably curious Naruto, she'd sworn up and down that she "hadn't _meant_ to drop that boulder on top of him, it had just sort of _happened."_

("Right," Naruto had agreed with obvious skepticism, "just like the time you _happened_ to knock that huge tree over right on top of me, and like the time you kicked Sai through three walls on _accident."_)

But Lee was, as ever, being Lee, which meant understanding and instant forgiveness, even if it wasn't really deserved. "I carry no grudge against you, Sakura-san! The fault was purely mine, for letting my guard down so deplorably!"

She giggled a bit at his formality and his attempt to take the blame for what she knew had really been little better than a temper tantrum. _Typical Lee--ever the "nice guy". _"No, I'm afraid it really _was _my fault this time, Lee-san, but thanks anyway. Are you sure you're alright?"

"Your healing techniques were flawless as usual, Sakura-san—" he began, only to have Naruto suddenly appear beside them and interrupt with a loud complaint about people standing around all day talking when it was time to eat, after which he dragged Sakura over to sit in the long booth at the back of the restaurant between Tenten and himself, Lee following along behind and happily plunking himself down in the chair directly across from the pink-haired girl. Nearly everyone really _was_ there, Sakura realized as she returned Ino's friendly, half-shouted greeting and took in the rest of the familiar faces gathered around the table; the only ones missing were Shino, who Kiba said was away on family business, Neji, who Lee announced would be coming along shortly, and Sai, and no one knew where _he_ was, as was often the case.

"You don't think he crawled away and died after that beating you gave him on Wednesday, do you?" Naruto teased, jabbing Sakura in the ribs with his elbow.

"We should be so lucky," she chuckled, leaning a bit towards Tenten to avoid the offending elbow. "But no, I'm sure he's fine. I may have beaten him within an inch of his life, but I healed him afterwards." (Even though she hadn't wanted to at the time, she conveniently neglected to add; Sai had just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and had let the word 'ugly' slip from his lips at the worst possible moment--while he was well within a very angry Sakura's grasp, and out of reach of his precious sketchbook.)

She chatted pleasantly with Tenten and Lee until their waitress came to take the increasingly rowdy group's orders; by the time the waitress left, Ino and Chouji were in the middle of a good-natured but very loud argument concerning food, which Shikamaru was trying (and for the most part failing) to keep under control, and Naruto and Kiba had already managed to spill water over a good third of the table with their 'flip the spoon into the glass' game.

"So what are your plans for tonight, Sakura?" Tenten asked with a bright smile, and Sakura turned her attention to the pretty brunette sitting on her right.

"Nothing really," Sakura admitted a bit sheepishly. "I've been so busy lately—"

"That's what you _always_ say," Naruto interrupted, looking away from his game long enough to give his old teammate a disapproving glance. "Busy busy busy! Work work work! You need to loosen up a bit and have some _fun_ for a change, Sakura-chan!" A flicker of movement caught the corner of his eye, and the blonde looked up again as another familiar figure entered the restaurant. "Speaking of needing to loosen up..." he muttered, surreptitiously checking to be sure that there was an acceptable distance between himself and Hinata before waving his arm wildly over his head and belting out a typically boisterous, "HEY NEJI, OVER HERE!"

"My apologies for being late," the Hyuuga genius said, acknowledging the entire table's amicable greetings with a nod and a small smile as he slipped into the empty chair beside Lee and opposite Tenten. "I was detained unexpectedly after giving my report on my latest mission to Tsunade-sama. I assume Lee informed you that I would be a bit late."

"He did, Neji-san," Sakura said, giving him a bright, welcoming smile, and Naruto gave a "Yup!" as Tenten nodded slightly. Soon the conversation swelled once more, only to fade a bit as Lee entertained them all with a _very_ energetic portrayal of the rescue mission he'd gone on with Naruto and Tenten a few months before.

The weapons specialist had gone uncharacteristically silent, something that did not escape the notice of the observant medic-nin sitting at her side, but though she frowned a bit at the older girl's sudden, unexplained withdrawal from the conversation, she made no comment and continued her lively debate with Naruto and Lee about who would win in a _real _match between Kakashi and Gai-sensei.

Their drinks arrived at about this time (and it was a good thing, too, since Naruto was having great success in his attempts to needle the ever-sensitive Lee about his revered sensei--if things had gone on much longer, they might very well have had a brawl on their hands), though because of his late arrival, Neji had yet to place his order.

Seeing this, Lee sprang to his feet. "Fear not, my honored rival, for I shall fetch you something myself!"

"That won't be necessary," Neji stated rather firmly. "I'm not thirsty and I ate before I came."

By the time he finished his second sentence, however, Lee was already halfway to the bar.

"_Wonderful. _The last time he ordered me something, I ended up with some ridiculous fruit drink with one of those little umbrellas in it," the pale-eyed man said with a faint sigh, drawing a quiet chuckle from Sakura as she envisioned the stately, serious Hyuuga Neji delicately sipping at such a decidedly feminine drink.

"It was a cocktail, Neji," Tenten said flatly, rolling her eyes a bit.

"It was disgusting."

"But you still drank it..._all _of it."

"And I think my back teeth are _still _wiggling from all the sugar. I am perfectly satisfied with tea, thank you, or simple sake if it must be alcoholic, though being who he is, I highly doubt that Lee will select anything so sensible."

A slightly awkward silence fell at their end of the table, throughout which Sakura cast furtive glances back and forth between the two. "Sooo...tell us about your latest mission, Neji-san," she said at last when the silence had become nearly unbearable. That seemed to break the ice somewhat, and before long the three of them were discussing the specifics of the Hyuuga's most recent assignment; Tenten, though still a bit more reserved than usual, engaged in the conversation as well, much to the medic-nin's relief.

"What are you doing tonight, Haruno?" Neji asked innocuously after a brief but not uncomfortable lull in the conversation, and Sakura smiled ruefully as she opened her mouth to share about the thoroughly unremarkable evening she had planned, but Tenten spoke up before she could get a word of it out.

"She's busy," the weapons specialist said rather sharply, then glanced away, stirring her drink with her straw in a slightly agitated manner.

Neji gave her a long, studious look that she pointedly ignored before turning his attention back to the pink-haired medic. "Are you now?" he asked calmly, seemingly unfazed by Tenten's interruption.

"W-well," Sakura stammered, feeling decidedly ill at ease, "I have to keep an eye on Sasuke-kun and catch up on a little paperwork..." From the look of Sakura's office, Shizune-san was having some trouble keeping up with all of it (and there had been a lot of it lately, so that was perfectly understandable), so she thought she'd help the older medic-nin out a bit; after all, it really _was_ supposed to be her work to start with, and she was faster than most at completing it. And with the way Sasuke had been acting lately, all she would have to do was pop in every few hours to make sure he was still breathing--_plenty_ of time left over for all the lovely charts and reports that were currently piled in alarmingly high stacks on her desk and the floor around it. "...Make that a _lot_ of paperwork. I'll probably end up working late tonight," Sakura confessed with a pained smile.

"Don't work _too_ late, Sakura," Tenten said with a sly, nearly vicious, grin--the first Sakura seen from her since Neji had joined them. "If you do, you'll miss the staring contest Neji and Lee are having tonight...at Lee's insistence, of course."

The Hyuuga rubbed at his forehead as if wearied by the very thought. "I only agreed to that to shut him up," he growled, looking irritated that she'd mentioned it. "And speaking of Lee, he's been gone quite some time now—"

At that moment a resounding crash came from the direction of the bar, as well a slurred apology, and Neji and Tenten exchanged knowing glances.

"Your turn," Neji said coolly, leaning back a bit in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, I know," the brunette muttered, looking none too pleased by this fact.

"Call if you require assistance."

"Sure thing." Something in her tone of voice made it clear that she would _not _be asking for help, one way or the other. The weapons specialist disappeared towards the front of the restaurant, and Sakura wondered a bit at the strained atmosphere between them. _Did they have a disagreement of some sort? _she wondered. She had her suspicions (and very strong ones at that) as to what might have caused the unusual tension--after all, the weapons specialist's feelings for her long-time teammate _were_ rather obvious--but she had no real, solid evidence that that was the case, and Sakura was not usually one to jump to conclusions, no matter how likely said conclusions seemed to be.

"So you're working late tonight," Neji picked up where they'd left off before.

"Oh, no, I've changed my mind. I won't be staying late after all," Sakura said with a grin rather similar to the one Tenten had given him before. "I couldn't _possibly_ miss your contest with Lee-san."

The Hyuuga quirked one dark eyebrow at her. "By all means, take your time. Lee might be used to it, but I've never much liked the idea of other people watching me make a fool of myself."

The sound of breaking glass--and quite a lot of it, too--came from the front of the restaurant, followed by another loud crash and Tenten's understandably dismayed voice:

"How on _earth_ did you manage this, Lee? Who gets drunk on _accident, _and at eleven-thirty in the morning? Neji!" The brunette called over her shoulder as she struggled to pull her inebriated (and apparently unconscious) teammate from the wreckage of a nearby table. "I'm taking Lee home, so I'll be a little late for practice, okay?"

Without waiting for his reply, she slung one of Lee's arms over her shoulders and dragged him off towards the exit.

"Case in point," Neji said, watching them go.

"Aren't you going to help her?" Sakura asked quietly as the other kunoichi stumbled a bit beneath her much larger teammate's dead weight: apparently he'd hit his head quite hard when he had broken the table--a blessing, actually, since it would've taken at least half of their group to restrain him in his usual drunken state.

"She doesn't want it," Neji replied just as quietly, and something in his tone prompted Sakura to shoot him a faint, pensive frown. "And after all, you can only do so much for someone who _doesn't_ want your help." His face, though turned towards her own, remained largely unreadable, and her slight frown intensified as she stared across the table at his inscrutable expression, wondering what exactly he meant by that...and if he was still talking about himself and Tenten, or someone else instead. "Well, it would seem that my public humiliation has been delayed...for a while, in any case," he went on with a low snort, his impassive expression giving way to one that was somehow both annoyed and rather pleased at the same time. "I doubt Lee will be up for our contest tonight."

"Oh, I don't know," Sakura said with a smile. "You of all people should know how stubborn Lee-san is. He might show up yet."

Neji chuckled. "You're right, he might at that."

They were quiet for a moment, and Sakura smiled as she watched Ino arguing (with Shikamaru now) about how _she _thought _men _were _much _more 'troublesome' than women; Kiba and Chouji were discussing their latest mission, and an uncharacteristically quiet Naruto was murmuring something to Hinata, whose cheeks were quickly shifting from their usual pale alabaster to a deep crimson.

Sakura glanced back at Neji to see him glaring at her blonde best friend through dangerously narrowed eyes.  
_  
Well, he's certainly become quite protective of his cousin, _she thought with a smile. It was touching, actually, considering how strained their relationship had once been; but as Naruto leaned even closer to whisper something in the now scarlet-faced Hyuuga girl's ear and Sakura heard the quiet crackle of Byakugan being activated, she knew she had to get Neji's focus on something other than his cousin and the amorous Kyuubi container--and _fast._

"Ah, Neji-san..." she blurted out, hoping to draw his attention away from Naruto and Hinata.

He blinked and relaxed his harsh stare, the chakra-puffed veins melting back into his handsome face as quickly as they'd come, then slid his silver-grey eyes over to meet hers. "Yes?"  
"Mind if I ask you a question?"

A faint smile curled one corner of his mouth upwards. "You just did, but I'm feeling generous so I'll give you another."

She snorted. "Clever, aren't we?"

"I try. You had a question, I believe," he prompted her.

"Yes. Why a staring contest?"

"It was the lesser of _many_ evils," he replied with an ominous scowl.

"What do you mean?"

"...His original challenge was a burping contest."

"I see," Sakura giggled. "Unbefitting for one of the proud and noble Hyuuga clan, right?"

Neji gave her an arch look--he clearly did not miss the fact that she was mocking him, though he could tell from her tone that she meant no real disrespect. "Indeed... In any case, when I refused his first challenge, he brought up quite a few more..."

"Such as?"

"Handstand races, push up contests, jump rope competitions, arm wrestling..."

Sakura blinked. "Wow."

"I suggested a drinking contest, but Lee didn't seem too enthusiastic about it. I wonder why," the Hyuuga mused with a surprisingly devious smile.

"I have _no_ idea," the pink-haired girl said with obviously feigned innocence.

"Then he suggested a _sleeping_ contest..."

"How 'bout a wet t-shirt contest?" Naruto chimed in from Sakura's left, and she couldn't hold back a snort of laughter at the thought.  
_**  
Oh, I would **_**dearly **_**love to see **_**that!** Inner Sakura cackled, and Outer Sakura had to agree.

"Or karaoke?" she suggested, sharing a grin with Naruto, and they were off:

"Or thumb wrestling?"

"Or hopscotch?"

"Or somersaults?"

"Or cartwheels?"

"Or backflips!"

"Or _kissing!"_

Both dissolved into helpless laughter at the thought of the reserved Hyuuga stooping to that level, and the thought of straight-laced Lee working up the courage to kiss _anyone_ was even more amusing.

"In _any_ case," Neji interrupted rather pointedly, "it was about this time that I suggested a silence contest, which Lee lost approximately thirty seconds later."

"So how'd you finally settle on a staring contest?" Naruto asked with a quizzical frown.

"Tenten proposed it as a compromise of sorts."

"Well then, a staring contest isn't really all that bad, is it?" Sakura reasoned with a little shrug.

"Speak for yourself," Neji snorted, then stated solemnly, "I am going to have to stare straight into those round, buggy eyes for _much_ longer than I _ever_ wanted to."

Sakura bit her lips in a largely useless attempt to fight back her smile, though her eyes clearly betrayed her amusement; to her left, she could hear Hinata's quiet giggle and Naruto valiantly trying to repress a chuckle of his own.

"If I win," the Hyuuga genius went on gravely, "I am going to make him shave his eyebrows."

"And if Lee wins?" Sakura asked, poorly-restrained laughter leaking into her words and making them come out somewhat shaky.

"Then good for him," Neji finished with a smirk.

* * *

A half-hour later, everyone had eaten their fill (except perhaps Chouji, who was openly eyeing what was left on Ino and Shikamaru's plates), and though they had all paid their bills, no one seemed to want to leave--it really _had_ been too long since they had all been together for something as simple as a casual meal. Usually when they were all gathered together, it meant that something big and generally quite dangerous was going down, and of course there was no time for idle chatter or pleasant reminiscing in situations like that.

Sakura leaned back in her seat, a broad smile on her face as she listened to the lively conversations swirling about her, soaking up the warmth of the special bond that existed between them all and feeling a happy glow spreading throughout her entire body.

Naruto, still laughing at some joke of Kiba's, turned his head and happened to catch her eye; he gave her a grin that clearly said, _See? Now, aren't you glad I dragged you here?_

Her smile widened even more, something she hadn't thought possible, and her shoulders shook with inward laughter as she grinned back her answer, _Yes...thank you for bringing me here, Naruto...I needed this._

* * *

It started to rain again just before Sakura reached the hospital. She sprinted the final two blocks, ending up slightly damp but nowhere near as wet as she'd been the last time she had gotten caught out in the rain. The last _two_ times, rather.

Making a mental note to buy herself a new umbrella (and replace Shizune's) as soon as possible, she headed up to Sasuke's room, determined to retain the pleasant mood that that very enjoyable lunch with so many of her friends had put her in.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun!" she said cheerily as she entered the room, then nearly fell over in surprise on finding him standing silently at the window, quietly gazing out at the falling rain. A few droplets of blood were spattered on the floor by his bare feet, and Sakura's heart was in her throat as her eyes darted to the IV pole still standing beside his bed; relief flooded her on seeing the intact catheter and tubing, as well as the tape used to hold it in place, dangling haphazardly from the pole. Nonetheless she crossed the room quickly, seizing his arm and jerking it up and away from where it hung limply at his side to survey the damage.

As expected, it wasn't really all that bad; in fact, she was surprised that he'd bled as much as he had. He'd taken the IV catheter out, too--had he just removed the tube, he could have lost quite a bit of blood before the IV site clotted, though certainly not enough to kill him--so all that was left really was the puncture wound, though it looked as if he'd widened it a bit with his apparently rather forceful removal of the IV.

She drew chakra to her hand, easily healing the small wound--regardless of the fact that it was a basically harmless injury, she didn't feel like fooling around with bandages and such when she could just fix him and be done with it in a matter of moments--then let out a deep sigh and collapsed in one of the chairs, for once very glad that she'd been right. She hadn't _thought _that there was enough blood on the floor for it to be anything too serious, but then again, one never knew. "What am I going to do with you?" she muttered, rubbing at her eyes tiredly, her good mood from before firmly supplanted by the odd, slightly hollow feeling that immediately follows an adrenaline rush.

"Kill me, if you were merciful."

Her head snapped around at the voice--Sasuke's voice, of course--and she found herself staring up into calm but peculiarly murky black eyes.

An unexpected flash of white-hot anger tore through her at his words, and without really pausing for thought she snapped out, "What were you _thinking, _tearing that IV out of your arm? You could have really hurt yourself!"

"So?" he said, his voice even, serene, and little more than a murmur.

Gritting her teeth, she slowly unclenched the fist that was begging to introduce itself to his jaw and took a few deep, calming breaths. "What are you doing out of bed, anyway?" she asked after moment, angling a skeptical frown up at him.

He gave an offhanded shrug, as if it hadn't been a huge ordeal to get him out of bed the whole rest of the week, and turned back towards the window. "I wanted to watch the rain."

Sakura's frown took on a more analytical quality as she peered at him closely; he must have felt her gaze on him, for after a moment he turned his head back to her, though his face was blank and dispassionate. His eyes were equally dull and expressionless, she found, but for once he actually seemed to see her clearly regardless of that fact, and he was readily answering her questions, and in a cognizant fashion, too. She'd never seen him in this state before, but he was still so obviously mad that she wasn't sure that it was an improvement; nonetheless, improvement or no, she was determined not to let the opportunity to get some real answers out of him pass her by.  
_  
I guess my real mission starts here..._

"Sasuke...what happened to you?"

"Things have been happening to me for twenty-two years now. You'll have to be more specific."

If his face hadn't remained so utterly bereft of any expression whatsoever, Sakura would have thought he was joking; as it was, her eyes narrowed slightly in aggravation. "I _mean, _what happened to you to put you in the terrible condition you were in when we found you?"

"I was attacked. By..." he hesitated for a moment. "...Hunter-nin."

The slight pause did not go unnoticed by the pink-haired medic; turning her head just slightly so that she was looking at him out of the corners of her eyes, she asked, "How many?"

"I don't remember...after...after _that, _it's all a blur..."

"After what?"

Abruptly he turned, making his way back to the bed and stretching himself out on it on his back, his arms folded underneath his head. "After I...left...Orochimaru."

_ Orochimaru...I have to ask... _

"Sasuke," she said, slowing rising from her chair by the window and moving to sit in the one beside his bed instead. "What did he do to you? What did Orochimaru _do_ to make you...act like this?"

"Like what?" he said flippantly.

"You _aren't_ acting like yourself most of the time, and you know it, Sasuke," she said hotly, fisting her hands in her lap and leaning forward in anticipation. "We all knew that Orochimaru wanted you as his next container, so why didn't he use you for one?"

Abruptly his gaze hardened, and he gave her a penetrating, disbelieving look, as if he was affronted by her audacity at daring to ask such a question. Slowly he sat up, leaving barely a foot of space between their faces. "You want to know what he did to me?"

"Yes, of course!" Her indignation at his seeming carelessness faded beneath his continued withering glare, and she subsided back into her chair, repeating her words a bit apprehensively. "...Of course I do."

"Do you?" His voice had sunk to a low murmur, and though he turned his head to stare down at his hands, his expression was no less harsh. "Do you _really?"_

Sakura hesitated, not liking the sudden chill that she heard in his tone, then nodded.

"Alright then...I'll tell you..."

_

* * *

It wasn't difficult for Sasuke to sense Orochimaru's deep pleasure at the prospect of finally getting what he wanted._

_ Three times now his plan to take over Sasuke's body had gone awry--the first time because of the Third Hokage's curse, the second because of Naruto and other Konoha interference, and the most recent time due to the clever manipulations of Kabuto, whose wish to be Orochimaru's container had finally (though unintentionally on the Sannin's part) been granted._

_ This time, there would be no mistakes._

"_Finally," the unnaturally pale man said in a low, rasping voice that nonetheless dripped with satisfaction...as well as a yearning, thirsty sort of excitement._  
_  
Sasuke's lip curled a bit in disgust as he took in the figure before him--it was not in the best of shape, having had a run-in with a certain blonde ninja from Konohagakure just a few days before (though of course the Uchiha didn't know that that was the true cause)--but he remained silent, listening with ill-concealed impatience to the "Legendary" snakemaster's triumphant oration._

"_Finally, after years of waiting..." He stopped scarcely two meters from the tall, dark-haired, and handsome man, chuckling somewhere deep back in his throat. "I always knew this day would come, Sasuke-kun...I knew you would seek me out, hungry for power, power that _I_ alone could give you..."_  
_  
There was a sharp jolt as they locked gazes, coal-black eyes that quickly snapped to jet-flecked scarlet meeting the slitted, dull gold orbs of a snake; the entire room seemed to waver oddly, as if the temperature had risen exponentially. Slowly the snake-eyed man's pupils narrowed until they were naught but minute vertical lines, and then it was as if Orochimaru himself had disappeared, for where he had stood mere heartbeats ago was coiled a giant snake. The impassive Uchiha did not flinch even as it opened its enormous, fanged jaws to spit a ragged hiss at him, continuing to stare calmly up at the beast...and wait._  
_  
As the forked ends of its tongue writhed and twisted around him, Sasuke suddenly found himself facing the ghostly figure of Orochimaru once more, and the pale man gave a low chuckle, his human body solidifying as the huge snake behind him faded into nothingness, disappearing into the shadows as completely as smoke dissipating in the open air._

"_Your avenger's heart will soon be satisfied...for I will give you more power than you have ever _dreamed_ of! I will also grant you one wish."_

_Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and as the Sannin's half-hissed words faded away into the dark recesses of the room, he slowly raised his hands, palms upward, fingers flexed and clawlike, and without once breaking their locked gaze he said in an unmistakably clear voice, __**"I want to see Uchiha Itachi die by these hands."**_  
_  
Orochimaru gave a sharp, sneering smirk. "Very well. I will grant your wish." Slowly he began stepping forward, closing the already short distance between them even more. "And don't worry, Sasuke-kun...your strong will will remain in my subconscious—"_

"_That _isn't _good enough."_

_ The Sannin blinked in surprise at the sudden steel in his soon-to-be container's voice. _After all this time, his free will should be so corroded that he should not be able to speak against me! _he thought, and just a trickle of fear ran through him; he knew all too well just how powerful the Uchiha clan was, and if Sasuke were to suddenly turn on him..._

"_I want to __**see**__ it done," the crimson-eyed man said slowly, deliberately, and Orochimaru relaxed, his slitted eyes widening just a bit. "I want to __**know, **__I want to be fully aware, __**I want to watch him die."**_

"_Very well then," Orochimaru hissed, a menacing gleam in his eye. "I will allow you to remain in control of a small portion of your mind...until Itachi is dead."_  
_Sasuke's gaze hardened as it probed the pale, serpentine face before him, his expression clearly distrustful._

"_You don't believe me, do you, Sasuke-kun...but I swear it."_

"_A promise means nothing from someone like you," the Uchiha said flatly, "but so long as Itachi dies, I don't care what happens to myself." _I have no choice but to believe him, _he thought, and he knew Orochimaru knew this as well._  
_  
The Sannin's body was suddenly engulfed by flickering, dancing purple flames. "Don't worry," he said with a sickly smile, placing a hand flat on the Uchiha's chest, directly over his heart. "You won't lose everything..."_

"_No..." Sasuke said as he felt the brush of the violet strands slowly enclosing his body. "I already have..."_

_ Then in a flash, the strands tightened, and he shut his eyes against the sudden explosion of red light that threatened to blind him. Some__** thing**__ was there before him now, something coiling close about him, clawing at his mind, _forcing_ its way inside him—_

_**I am an avenger…**_

_ The red light surrounding him was hot as hell, and so bright that he could almost _feel_ it starting to burn through his eyelids—_

_**On the path I walk, I have to do whatever it takes to gain power…**_

_ It was nearly through now, that __**thing**__, its scorching, serpentine body wrapped tightly around his own, nearly strangling him—_

_**...Even if it means selling my flesh to the devil!**_

_ He opened his mouth to gasp only to find himself screaming in pain, feeling as if he was being seared by thousands of burning needles that were stabbing their way deeper and deeper into his flesh, as if his skin was being peeled off inch by agonizing inch, as if his entire body was being ripped apart—_

_ Then, with almost audible _snap, _everything suddenly went black._

* * *

"That's...that's awful..." Sakura found herself shaking uncontrollably, fear and dread and loathing coiling at the pit of her stomach, making her feel ill and vaguely apprehensive. She raised wide eyes to his curiously calm face, unable to keep her distress from showing clearly on her own. "It must have been...so awful for you..."

But Sasuke merely gave an offhanded shrug, not seeming to notice or care about the pink-haired medic-nin's obvious concern. "Not really. After the pain faded, I merely felt as if I had been closed up in a dark room. I could see out if I wanted to, but why bother? It was so...peaceful...as if I was just floating in nothingness, a welcome oblivion..."

Sakura fought back the horror that rose within her at this admission; his voice sounded so wistful...as if he had actually _enjoyed _being used by Orochimaru. "But Sasuke..."

She watched as the Uchiha's dark eyes slowly narrowed, his mouth drawing back in a snarl. "It couldn't last, though. I couldn't stay there while Itachi still lived." His head suddenly snapped up, joining their gazes, and Sakura could still see all the hatred and anger for his older brother that Sasuke had carried for nearly fifteen years smouldering there in his eyes. "I swore when I left this place that I would not rest until that _monster_ was dead...and I would do _whatever _it took to bring about his downfall. Whatever darkness I encountered, I would push through it until I had achieved my goal..." A vicious smile slashed across his face, bringing a savage glint to Sasuke's narrowed eyes. "Orochimaru could feel my discontent, my desire for Itachi's blood. My strong will spurred him on, insistent that my wish be granted...so the very first thing _**we**_ did was seek out Uchiha Itachi..." Sasuke fell silent, his gaze sliding away from Sakura and turning out the window to watch the droplets weaving their serpentine paths down the glass.

"And?" Sakura pressed after he had maintained that silence for several long minutes. "Did you find him?"

"We were successful in locating him," Sasuke replied in a low voice, "though truth be told, Orochimaru was a coward, and did not wish to face Itachi. He was afraid of his power--imagine that, one of the legendary Sannin wanted to turn tail and flee before the strength of an Uchiha!--and he wanted to run...but of course, I wouldn't let him."

Silence fell once more, broken only by the quiet tapping of the rain against the window.

"...And then what happened?" she said softly, though a part of her didn't truly want to hear his answer.

The Uchiha's head slowly turned back towards her, his expression cold and grim as his gaze settled on her once more. "He misjudged the depth of my 'container'...and he did not live to regret it."

_ 'Container'? What is he talking about?_

Sakura swallowed hard, biting her lip before asking, "So then…Itachi is dead?"

A broad smile split Sasuke's lips, and Sakura could not hold back a shudder at the expression; she'd only ever seen him smile like that once before, his eyes wide and vacant, his mouth stretched in a cruel, utterly mirthless grin--back during their first chuunin exam, in the Forest of Death, right before he broke the arms of the Sound Ninja who'd injured her.

"Dead? No…oh, no." He chuckled, pressing a hand against his chest. "Itachi lives on…within me. You see…I _am_ Itachi."


	6. Which Hopefully Clears Up Some Confusion

"...You see…I _am_ Itachi."

Sakura felt a flicker of fear at this solemn declaration--after all, it wasn't entirely impossible that a ninja as powerful as Itachi could or would do something as bizarre as implanting himself in his younger brother's body (Orochimaru had done it, after all)--but the crazed look in those dark eyes told her that Sasuke was still not fully in his right mind at the moment, and thus the verity of anything he said was suspect.

Nonetheless it was only with great difficulty that she managed to ask, "Are you saying...are you saying that Itachi has..._possessed_ you? Just like Orochimaru did?"

The Uchiha shot her a searing _what are you, stupid?_ look. "Of_ course _not."

"Then what—?"

"—But we're the _same_...he and I, we really _are_ the same now. I...have become Itachi..."

Abruptly Sakura stood and, leaning forward, grasped his upper arms and squeezed them tightly, giving him a slight shake. "What are you _talking _about, Sasuke?"

Eyes eerily blank, he stared past her, over her shoulder, and murmured almost dreamily, "I am following so closely in his footsteps, sometimes I'm sure I'm in his shoes, and that we're walking together, inside one another..."

"No, Sasuke, you're wrong," she insisted. "You...you went your own way. Away from us, and away from Itachi as well." She shook her head slowly. "The two of you are so different, I just don't see it...how are you at _all _like Itachi?" _Other than the fact that both of you chose ways that were filled with darkness? _she just barely kept herself from adding.

Sasuke's gaze cleared somewhat, slowly refocusing, and as he looked up at her solemnly, for a moment she could almost believe that he was sane again. "In the end...I, too, was unable to walk the path."

_What? _she thought, but she bit back the question and remained silent, waiting for him to elaborate on his own.

"I...killed them. I killed all of them." The words were calm, emotionlessly flat, and he was staring down at his hands where they rested limply on the covers before him. "I'm a murderer just like he was...our hands are both covered in layers of blood, so much that we could never hope to be truly clean again." His eyes were wide and guileless, but unmistakably mad once more as he stared up at her, that slight, unnerving smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "It was our destiny, our purpose, that the color of our hands should match our eyes. It was what we were _born_ for, after all."

She was losing him again, and quickly, too...this time probably for good, or at least for a long while. She knew the signs well enough to know that she didn't have much time, and she had a very important question for him--a question that she _had_ to know the answer to, or else Tsunade would almost certainly have him killed once Sakura told her everything the Uchiha had said thus far. "Sasuke." She shook his shoulders again, much harder this time, as if hoping to somehow shake his sanity back into him. "Sasuke, you have to listen, you have to answer me—just one more _very_ important question!"

A flicker of comprehension crossed his face at the urgency in her tone, which she knew was the closest thing she'd get to any real form of acknowledgment or consent.

"You said before that Orochimaru is gone...how did you...get him _out _of you?"

"I didn't."

"What?" Sakura gulped, jerking her hands back from his shoulders and just barely resisting the urge to scramble away from the bed. "But you said—"

He scowled at her faintly. "I said that he's gone...and he is. But it was not my doing."

"Not your...? Then who—?"

"Itachi."

She blinked. "W-what?"

"Itachi was the one who freed me..." His scowl deepened, and he stared down at his clenched fists. "He..._saved_ me...from being Orochimaru's puppet for the rest of my pathetic half-life." Sasuke snorted, a wry smile faintly curling about his mouth. "Of course, he did it for his own, entirely selfish reasons...saving me was just an accident of sorts, something that was necessary for him to get what he wanted." Bitterness crept into his voice, which had sunk to nearly a whisper, and his eyes narrowed until they were mere chips of obsidian. "And _heaven forbid_ that Uchiha Itachi be kept from getting what_ever_ he wanted!"

"How? How could you have survived?" Sakura whispered. "When a body becomes a host or container for another soul or spirit...when that spirit leaves, the host dies too." She slowly shook her head. "It—it doesn't make sense—"

"Life rarely does. But if you _really_ think that it's impossible, then you _seriously_ underestimated Itachi..._and_ the power of the Uchiha bloodline." A small, smug smile touched his lips. "He used an incomplete, altered form of the _Fūin Jutsu: Genryū Kyū Fūjin_..." An odd look came over Sasuke's face, his eyes focusing and unfocusing, and he eased himself back down onto his pillow, one hand pressed flat against his forehead. "Although...perhaps he was not as gentle about it as he should have been..." His voice was weakening, but he still managed to give a short, dry laugh. "But then again, Itachi never really _was_ one to be gentle..." He snorted, draping his arm across his eyes, his mouth still turned down bitterly. "He saved me just to turn me into a murderer, how ironically perfect. And of course, I exceeded his expectations on that account by far," he muttered darkly. "Though perhaps it wasn't totally my doing...it's still my fault..."

_I'm so confused... _Sakura thought with an inward moan. After nearly two months of silence punctuated by crazed ramblings, he had actually told her quite a bit about what had happened, and to her extreme frustration, she found that she was at a loss to understand most of it. _Itachi_ had freed Sasuke from being Orochimaru's container? Never mind the how, which she didn't think they would ever know, but why? _Sasuke said it was for a selfish reason, but what could that possibly be? And what's all this talk of being a murderer? Surely Sasuke doesn't think of himself that way just because he killed Itachi._ That simply wouldn't make sense; all shinobi ended up taking lives at one point or another--Sakura herself had done so many a time, and though it had been difficult at first, she did not regret it or consider it wrong. Morals didn't even come into the equation: it was kill or be killed, or worse, kill or have your friends and comrades killed.

_Well, another straight answer is probably too much to ask for, but here goes nothing... _"Sasuke...why do you insist on calling yourself a murderer?"

He dragged his arm away from his face to look up at her wearily. "What else do you call someone who takes the lives of innocents?"

"Innocents?"

"Yes...all the music has died, and it's my fault."

_And just like that, he's gone again._ Sakura heaved a sigh at his dispassionate tone and seemingly nonsensical words. _So much for getting another straight answer._

A haunted look tinged the already readily apparent madness in his eyes, and his hands curled into white-knuckled fists. "Nii-san...he's here with me even now...I have become _his_ container now..."

"_Stop it!" _she snapped, rapidly tiring of his continued self-contradictions. She sincerely wanted to shove her fingers in her ears to block out his irrational ramblings...or tape his mouth firmly shut with medical tape. "You told me yourself that Itachi is dead!"

"But so long as I am alive, he will never truly die. We share the same blood, the same fate...blood _is_ our fate, blood is our _birthright..."_

_Oh_ yeah. That medical tape was looking _very_ tempting just now.

She was quite honestly considering it when his eyes suddenly went wide, though the lunatic sheen in them did not fade in the least. "I-I can't stop it...not even when I try...the blood still comes, more and more of it, endlessly..." Sakura shivered at the tone of helplessness and despondence that had entered his voice. "I keep striking the notes, but they don't make any music…they just fall and die…"

Something clicked in Sakura's mind. _No...he--he couldn't have...Not Sasuke..._ Slowly she stood, leaning over the bed once more to force him to look her in the eye. "Who did you kill, Sasuke? Tell me. Tell me _now."_

But though he was looking straight at her, he didn't seem to have heard her, didn't seem to be aware that she had even spoken, much less asked him a question.

"They're not singing. They wear the notes, but they can't carry the tune. They're all off-key…" He gave an odd sort of chuckle that for some reason made her skin crawl. "Ironic that there is now not a sound in Otogakure..."

She felt her whole body suddenly go cold, as if her blood had turned to ice, and her stomach gave another lurch. _I-I'm...oh God, I think I'm right... _Legs shaking, she stumbled out of the room, sharply advising the first medic-nin she passed in the hallway to keep an eye on Sasuke, forcing her unsteady legs to carry her onwards.

* * *

Tsunade looked up with mild surprise as her ex-apprentice burst into her office, breathless and panting and still dressed in her long white medic's coat.

"Sakura-chan? What's wrong? You look pale as a sheet!"

"Tsunade-shishou, send a recon team to do a sweep of Oto no Kuni—the whole country!" She dropped wearily into the chair in front of the Hokage's desk, propping her elbows on her knees and cradling her head in her hands. "And though it…probably doesn't matter at this point…it might be best if it's done quickly."

The Godaime frowned slightly at the girl's behavior and odd tone of voice. "It's Sasuke, isn't it?"

The pink-haired kunoichi gave a wordless nod, still desperately hoping that she was wrong, that she'd misinterpreted the Uchiha's odd ramblings, that she'd been trying to make sense out of something that truly held no deeper meaning.

"What did he say, Sakura? Tell me everything."

* * *

For an ANBU squad traveling at top speed, the border of the country of Oto was about a day's journey from Konohagakure. It had been known as the Land of Rice Fields before Orochimaru had taken over, so a large portion of the country consisted of rice paddies and terraced hillsides; the thick, all-encompassing forests that the Konoha ninja were used to dwindled down to irregular but deep patches of trees on rolling hills, with the occasional spires of rocky mountains heaving up around the paddies and through the leafy canopies. Try as they might to keep within those clusters of trees, at times there was no way to avoid traveling over the open ground or along the dusty roads winding through the water-filled fields, both of which felt appallingly revealing.

The sun had set several hours ago, and the nearly full moon was choked by thick strands of cloud, providing them with additional cover, and despite the fact that they were currently moving through the temporary shelter of a small forest, Naruto frowned. So far they hadn't found much of anything in this country—it was even more desolate and deserted than the times he'd visited it before; in fact, they hadn't run into so much as one enemy nin yet.

_Some mission._

Not that they hadn't found anything at all, of course. Actually, they'd found something quite interesting: deep within the mist-wrapped boles of another, similar cluster of trees, they had discovered one of Orochimaru's many hidden lairs. They had approached the wooden, house-like entrance to the underground caverns with extreme caution, Shino sending a few of his insects in to check it out before any of the four ANBU ventured forward. The report they brought back was strange, but the shinobi found it to be accurate when they looked for themselves: inside the lair was nothing but fine ash and singed stone. Everything--and if there had been people there too, then every_one_--had been totally and utterly destroyed, burned to cinders.

That did not bode well in Naruto's opinion, and he could sense that the whole group was a bit more tense after discovering the lair…but perhaps that was a standard procedure for Orochimaru. The man was undeniably insane after all--perhaps he ordered everything to be burned whenever he switched bases to hide any secrets that might have accidentally been left behind.

_Not likely,_ Naruto thought, eyes narrowing at the implications of the alternative.

"Hold on a second," Kiba's voice suddenly came over his radio's earpiece, echoed by a deep growl from Akamaru. Both the man and his big, shaggy white dog suddenly leaped into view, coming to a stop in a small clearing directly in front of Naruto. (Since they were trying to confirm whether or not the information Sasuke had inadvertently given them was correct, Tsunade had assigned Kiba to the recon group, knowing that the Inuzuka family's tracking abilities would most likely prove to be quite helpful.) He was soon joined by Aburame Shino, whose kikaichu bugs were also especially useful in gathering information. Naruto himself was along because he'd been in the Land of Sound a couple times before, and knew where two lairs (or their remains) were…and having been inside both, Tsunade had figured that he'd have at least a vague idea of what to look for. Also, the loudmouthed blonde had been fairly insistent on the matter after seeing how upset Sakura was, and if someone was searching for incriminating evidence against Sasuke, then Naruto wanted to be there to make sure that said evidence was the real thing, and that there hadn't been a mistake. The Hokage had grudgingly admitted that he probably _did_ know the Uchiha's fighting style better than anyone else in the village, and she was right: if Sasuke had had anything to do with this matter, Naruto would know.

"Something wrong?" Shikamaru, who was once again the team leader, asked as he and Naruto landed near-silently beside the other two.

"I'm not sure. Just now Akamaru mentioned that he smelled something, and I'm surprised that I missed it myself…" Seeing the unspoken question in his teammates' eyes, he hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, "It's…the smell of death. And it's an extremely strong scent, though it's pretty old."

All four exchanged grim looks, then Shikamaru said, "Well, I guess we'd better check it out. Lead the way, Kiba."

Giving him a quick nod, the man and his ninken were off, their companions close on their heels.

After a while Naruto started to notice an odd smell as well; he could feel the Kyuubi shift a bit inside him in response to the scent. It smelled strangely familiar, but he couldn't quite put a finger on what it was…

They'd followed Kiba for several miles, and had once again been forced to take to the open road, when the brown-haired ninja suddenly jerked to stop, making a retching noise low in his throat. "The scent is getting stronger," he said a moment later, looking at them over his shoulder and giving them a strained smile. "We're getting close, I think."

"I can see something up ahead," Naruto said, jabbing a finger at a smudge on the horizon. "Come on, let's go!" As they got closer, the smudge slowly formed into a good-sized town, and Naruto realized that he'd been through it before with Jiraiya. "I recognize this place," he murmured as they continued to move quickly forward. "There was a really good teriyaki stand at the edge of town, and I…" He trailed off and slowly came to a halt as he got his first good look at the place:

The town was in shambles. Half the buildings had been burned to the ground, and the other half had partially collapsed, many of them showing signs of serious fire damage as well; the wooden wall surrounding the city had been smashed through in numerous places, and the gates were hanging at odd angles on their melted hinges. Shattered rock and splintered wood from the damaged and destroyed buildings filled the streets…and dotting the rubble were the remains of the town's inhabitants, all long dead and mostly decayed.

Because of what Tsunade had told them during their mission briefing, this wasn't totally unexpected...but being told that something is a possibility and actually _finding_ that something are two very different things.

Though sobered by what they'd found, they continued on into the city, coming to a stop in the middle of the street about a hundred meters inside the gates and gazing about them in disbelief.

"...This is _so_ messed up," Naruto muttered, voicing the inward thoughts of the entire group.

The whole place reeked of death and decay, and the restless blonde snorted in a futile attempt to clear the smell from his nostrils, but it was everywhere, permeating everything. _Well, now I know what that weird smell was, _he thought with a grimace, pulling up the attached Kakashi-style mask on the close-fitting, sleeveless black top of his ANBU uniform (he didn't think he'd ever used it before, but he was _very _happy to have it now) to block out the smell a bit; Kiba had already covered his own nose, and was now kneeling beside Akamaru to cover the nin-dog's nose as well.

"What happened here?" Kiba said as he got to his feet, and though muffled by his mask, his voice still carried a clear tone of horrified awe.

"It was a massacre," Shikamaru said quietly. "Just like Tsunade-sama said."

"Why didn't we hear about this before?" Kiba demanded, still sounding rather shaken.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "You would think _someone_ would have noticed…that someone would have found them before now."

"I don't know…" the lazy genius mused. "It looks like a pretty self-sufficient place, and it's also pretty out-of-the way. They probably didn't get many visitors."

"No way," Naruto shook his head. "This place was, like, a tourist trap! Ero-sennin fell for it, too…he's lucky he's so powerful, or they would've killed him. We _should_ have heard about it…shouldn't we? I thought Tsunade had this country under constant ANBU surveillance."

Shino, who had yet to say a word since night had fallen, suddenly moved away from them, carefully making his way over to one of the many corpses and crouching down beside it.

Frowning thoughtfully, Naruto watched him for a moment, then glanced around at the other bodies strewn about. "Not that I'm complaining of course, but why don't they smell bad? All I can really smell is dirt."

"Because they've been here for months," Shino said in his usual terse manner. He alone of the four (five counting Akamaru) seemed largely unfazed by what they'd found. Naruto supposed that it had something to do with the fact that Shino was himself infested with bugs, and he was_ still alive:_ thus, the sight of all the dead bodies in a similar state was not particularly troubling to him. (Of course, Shino never really seemed fazed by _anything_.)

"And no one buried them...because no one was left to," Shikamaru said grimly.

"This is a bit strange, though," Shino admitted, peering a bit more closely at the corpse.

The blonde cocked his head at him. "What's strange?"

"Tsunade-sama told us it that it has been roughly three months since this occurred. The insects should have broken all the bodies down to mere skeletons by now. These still have some flesh on them, though it isn't much."

"It's probably because there are so many," Shikamaru said with a grimace as Shino rose from his crouch and calmly rejoined them in the middle of the debris-filled road. "We haven't found any other villages yet, but it's very possible that they've been destroyed, too." He sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets, and glanced around at the small group clustered around him. "All right...I know it's a pain, but let's split up and look around for some clues concerning the cause of all this."

The others nodded wordlessly, and all four disappeared in simultaneous puffs of smoke and whirls of leaves.

* * *

Naruto wandered through the wreckage and the rubble-choked streets, his pensive frown deepening at every new horror he found. The devastation was so utterly complete, and "inhumane" was the least that could be said of the methods used to kill many of the people. So far, however, he hadn't found any conclusive evidence as to who had done all this. The kunai and shuriken had all been thrown with near-perfect precision, but that didn't particularly worry him: although he knew that Sasuke was definitely capable of that extremely high level of accuracy, he certainly wasn't the only ninja out there who was, so that observation proved nothing at all other than the fact that the killer (or killers) had been a ninja, and a very skilled one at that.

What _did_ concern him was the easily recognizable pattern of the fire damage; it looked suspiciously like someone had used the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu technique…and quite liberally at that. He became certain that his suspicions had been correct after leaping over and around a few very familiar–looking craters, hopping down into one of the surprisingly deep depressions to examine the ground a bit more closely; it didn't take more than a glance to confirm that they had definitely been caused by a fire-type jutsu.

He had to admit that things didn't look too good for his one-time closest friend.

Looking around, Naruto realized that he had wandered into the residential sector of the city—the buildings (or what was left of them) were no longer garishly decorated, but were instead shabby-looking and rather run down. All the doors were ajar or had fallen off their hinges, and some were missing completely; peering inside, he found the interiors to be in shambles and the occupants slain, many of them seemingly killed without warning while in the middle of their regular daily activities.

As the blonde rounded a corner, something about one of the houses caught his eye, and he carefully picked his way through the bodies and the surrounding debris until he stood before it.

It looked basically the same as every other semi-dilapidated house on the street, but for one thing: pinned against the doorframe was yet another dead body, this one frozen forever in the act shielding a smaller one; the ragged, faded garments hanging from the larger body made it obvious that it had been a woman—most likely a mother attempting to protect her child.

But what really caught his eye was the cause of their death...for it was an object that was all-too-familiar.

_How could Sasuke have done this?_ Naruto wondered, grief and a strange sort of helpless anger wrenching at his insides, threatening to bring tears to his eyes. He knew the Uchiha had changed for the worse over the years—how could he not have, with an avenger's heart and the path he'd chosen?—but what the_ hell_ did Orochimaru _do_ to him to make him capable of something like this? He shook his head slowly. _The Sasuke I knew would never have done this…not for anything._

Maybe he was wrong. Maybe it hadn't been Sasuke at all, maybe he was mistaken…

But the object before him gleamed with dull insistence, and Naruto heaved a sad, dutiful sigh. No...he'd seen it enough times and at close enough range that there could be no mistake—

"I know what Tsunade-sama told us, but have you found any solid evidence as to who...or what...did this?" Shikamaru's voice suddenly came from behind him, making the blonde start slightly; he'd been so deeply lost in thought that he hadn't even noticed the lazy genius's approach.

"Yeah," Naruto said quietly, taking a firm grasp on the object of his contemplations and wrenching it free. "Yeah, I have."

* * *

About half a week after Sakura had rushed into her office with her upsetting news, Tsunade called her apprentice back in to discuss the recon team's report with her.

"Your suspicions about the information you brought me earlier this week have been confirmed, Sakura…nearly the entire population of Oto no Kuni—which, granted, wasn't all that large to begin with—has been wiped out. Our scouts did a sweep of basically the whole country, and any and all towns and villages of a noteworthy size, including several series of previously unknown lairs, have been completely and savagely destroyed. No one was left alive."

"That's terrible," Sakura murmured, obviously troubled by the news. "But—there's still no proof, right?" she said half-hopefully. "I mean, since there are no witnesses, we can't know for sure that...that..."

"You're right, Sakura, there are no witnesses," Tsunade said grimly. "However...in one of the towns on the outskirts of Oto, the recon team _did_ find some evidence as to who was responsible for the seemingly mindless slaughter..." The buxom blonde took a hastily-wrapped, oblong bundle from behind her desk and laid it out on the desktop, quickly slicing through the strings that held the rough cloth close about the object inside; as the cloth fell away, Sakura's eyes widened in shock at the sight of it.

_No...oh, God, please don't let it be true..._

The Godaime carefully passed the long, slender object across her desk to her apprentice, and Sakura felt tears coming to her eyes as she found herself holding Sasuke's black-bladed kusanagi.


	7. Which Has a Great Plan In It, Maybe

Sasuke was, quite understandably, placed under a heavy ANBU guard once more after the recon team returned with their grim report; however, this precaution soon proved to be unnecessary as the last Uchiha slowly and inexplicably slipped into some sort of deep coma, and nothing and no one could wake him from it.

Just a few days after _that_ situation developed (during which an extremely frustrated Sakura got almost no sleep whatsoever because she was desperately searching through every medical textbook she could find for some way to bring Sasuke back out of his coma), Tsunade called the exhausted girl into her office once again.

"I'm taking you off this case, Sakura," she said firmly, holding up a hand to stay the inevitable protest from her ex-apprentice. "I know what he meant to you at one time, but you have to admit to yourself that he's not the same person he used to be." The buxom blonde gave the younger woman a sad little smile. "Perhaps it would be better just to let him pass on, Sakura…he doesn't seem to want to be here anyway. And you said yourself that he told you he wanted to die."

Sakura's head snapped up, a fierce look in her eye, but before she could speak the hot words that were practically burning her tongue, the Godaime gave a soft chuckle.

"Of course, we don't always want what's really best for us, do we?" She leaned forward a bit, resting her elbows on her desk and propping her chin on her folded hands. "I'll make a deal with you, Sakura-chan. I will permit you to continue your research on Sasuke's case, but you must resume all your regular duties as well--and no slacking off this time. Also," she said with a slight frown as she noted the dark rings under Sakura's eyes, "you have to take better care of yourself. No more of these all-nighters. You need to keep up your own strength, after all. It's your duty as a kunoichi."

Sakura hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement. Arguing wouldn't do any good here, that much she knew, and really the Hokage was being quite generous by simply allowing her to continue her research.

"Thank you, Tsunade-shishou," she said with a deeper-than-usual bow before leaving the room.

* * *

Sakura had of course been utterly horrified on learning what Naruto and the rest of the recon team had found in the villages of Oto no Kuni, and even though she had been the first to deduce the possibility of such a massacre, somehow she still found it nearly impossible to believe. The sword they had brought back, however, was unquestionably Sasuke's kusanagi, and that alone had been nearly enough to convince her, but it was Naruto's grudging admission that Sasuke and _only_ Sasuke could have been the cause that solidified her position on the matter. She knew that if there was any way that some mistake had been made, Naruto would have announced it to the world at the top of his lungs. It did not bode well that he was instead silent and oddly reserved, moping about in much the same manner he had when Sasuke had first left Konoha ten years before.

But despite having learned of the most recent addition in Uchiha Sasuke's personal collection of horrific secrets, Sakura found that she couldn't quite bring herself to truly fear or loathe the man. She had spent so much time with him in recent weeks, and never once had he attempted to harm her; he'd even moved to protect her, though truthfully the action had seemed more reflexive than deliberate.

Still, it was not really what one would expect from someone who had apparently committed genocide just a short time before.

Sakura was a very logical girl, and she knew the evidence weighed heavily against the Uchiha heir…and yet she couldn't shake the niggling doubt that things just didn't add up here. There _had_ to be something about the situation that they were missing, something that they weren't taking into account…

Unfortunately, the only one who could really give them any genuine information about the issue was in a coma at the moment, and showed no signs of waking any time soon (or ever, for that matter).

This only served to further intrigue Sakura, however: it heightened her curiosity about Sasuke's condition as well as hardening her resolve to figure out his decidedly abnormal case. It was a puzzle that _needed_ to be solved, and her brilliant medic's mind would not be satisfied until every last piece had been put into place and the picture had been made whole once more.

So while she did resume all her regular hospital duties, she still went to visit Sasuke in his now-heavily-guarded room whenever she could (though that time was restricted now since he'd been labeled "most likely quite dangerous" by the Black Ops); and every night she spent hours poring over all sorts of medical books and scrolls, her exceptional honor student's mind nearly obsessed with researching possible cures for her old teammate's condition.

* * *

At the edge of an open field, Hyuuga Neji sat alone at the base of a large tree, legs crossed and hands folded carefully in his favorite position for meditation. He was finding it a bit difficult to clear his mind this morning, which was unusual, but not really all that implausible: his thoughts had been somewhat troubled lately with several different matters.

The matter currently at the forefront of his mind that was so persistently disrupting his mediation was the subject of Uchiha Sasuke…and that subject in turn was linked closely to the _other_ matter, the one that had of late been the most common disturbance of his meditative trances: the state of his own relationship with one Haruno Sakura.

Neji's stance on the Uchiha situation was simple and straightforward: regardless of the value of his bloodline limit, the man was a traitor and should therefore be put to death--after standing trial for his considerable crimes against Konohagakure, of course. And even if those crimes weren't enough to warrant the death sentence (and Neji was quite certain that they were), the report the recon team had brought back from Oto no Kuni was an undeniably clear indication that it was far too dangerous to allow Uchiha Sasuke to live…and after what he'd done, perhaps a trial wasn't even necessary…

Even before the sullen Uchiha had turned missing-nin, the Hyuuga prodigy hadn't really cared for him; he was arrogant, cold, and conceited--far too much like Neji himself for either of them to really get along. Neji's attitude had been violently changed not too long after they'd first met, however (courtesy of Naruto, of course), and his already slightly-softer self had recognized the darkness surrounding the Uchiha as being quite similar to the darkness that had enshrouded his own heart and mind for so many years. He had felt…_compassion_ towards the other boy. Determination to succeed in the mission to bring him back to Konoha. Hope that Naruto would be able to reason with Sasuke, or at least forcibly drag him back home. Sadness and regret when he learned that despite their best efforts, they had failed to save a comrade from himself. And then anger and disdain as time passed and Sasuke did not return and admit that he'd made a mistake in leaving after all, instead actually _choosing_ to fight against and seriously wound shinobi from Konoha…

The pensive Hyuuga bowed his head slightly, his chin sinking towards his chest, and a faint frown creased his forehead, regardless of his halfhearted attempts to maintain his rapidly evaporating meditative state and push away personal feelings and emotion.

Now when he thought about the Uchiha, he felt a curious mingling of pity and contempt. To a point, he understood the sort of emotional trauma that the other man had gone through during his early childhood, and besides that, Sasuke's previous maddened state, as well as his current comatose one, were nothing if not pitiable. On the other hand, he still didn't like the missing-nin, crazy or not, and he _certainly_ didn't trust him, and Neji had no qualms whatsoever about showing a traitor nothing less than his utmost contempt.

…Or rather he _wouldn't_ have had any qualms, if not for the important fact that Sakura obviously cared very deeply about the Uchiha. It was for her sake and hers alone that the Hyuuga genius refrained from expressing his resentment towards and misgivings about the other man. Besides, Uchiha was comatose now, and he'd been crazy before, so it wouldn't've mattered to him even if Neji _had_ shown him the scorn he deserved. Sasuke had been too out of it most of the time to even notice, and the Hyuuga knew that it would have only hurt Sakura.

One thing that Neji had come to understand with perfect clarity was that Haruno Sakura really only had one weak point, and it went by the name of Uchiha Sasuke.

And all these deliberations about the Uchiha and his probable fate were doing nothing to help Neji focus on calming his mind and opening himself to his surroundings.

Then, of course, there was the matter of Sakura herself…and that was anything _but_ simple and straightforward.

He snorted lightly without opening his eyes, briefly disrupting his careful breathing pattern. She was on his mind far too much lately, something that he wasn't entirely comfortable with, but he had long since given up trying to deny what he was feeling…though twenty-three was one hell of an age to suddenly realize that one had hormones. For the most part he thought his own strange behavior to be irrational and extremely childish, especially when he found himself thinking that he could hear her voice when the wind whispered around his ears, or that he could smell her perfume…

He _could_ smell her perfume, he suddenly realized, taking note of the faint scent of jasmine in the air that hadn't been there moments before. A quick Byakugan scan confirmed it: there was a smallish figure heading this way, and the careful chakra control that it was exhibiting left no doubt in his mind as to who it was.

Neji smiled slightly, faintly amused at the irony. No matter where he went, it seemed he couldn't entirely escape her—mentally _or_ physically.

* * *

She hadn't really been looking for him, but Sakura was glad that she'd found him. It was somehow soothing just to be near Neji while he was meditating; it almost felt like he was exuding some sort of calming mental field, and it wouldn't've surprised her if he really was using his chakra to do something of the sort.

She came to a stop a few feet in front of him, studying his calm, composed face. Impulsively, she wondered if he ever fell asleep out here like this when the weather was especially nice.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked quietly after a moment's hesitation, and the Hyuuga shook his head in a minute 'no'.

She settled herself at the base of nearby tree, mimicking his cross-legged position, and visibly relaxed her shoulders before attempting to meditate as well, trying to remember what Neji said about meditation one of the many times he had tried to teach her about it:

"_Picture a river. Now, think of yourself as the riverbed…open yourself to all the sounds and smells and sensations around you and let them flow through you without manipulating them with your thoughts. Exist only in this moment. Don't think, just feel, just breathe, just live. Become at peace with your surroundings, and let your surroundings become at peace with you…"_

(It _sounded_ easy enough, but Sakura had always found it very difficult not to think, especially after sitting in the same position for more than an hour or two; without warning her brain would suddenly kick in again and start racing at top speed before she could stop it. She couldn't help but worry about the patients back at the hospital, and her mind kept wanting to return to considering their individual cases…and if it wasn't that, then she was worrying about Sasuke or Naruto, or else fighting back the fluttering feeling she got in her stomach when she realized just how close she was sitting to the very attractive Hyuuga.)

A long silence stretched between them, during which neither succeeded in getting much meditating done, though the other remained blissfully unaware of that fact.

"How are you doing with your return to the hospital?" Neji murmured at last, though Sakura got the distinct feeling that what he really meant was _how are dealing with what's happened to Sasuke?_ She opened her eyes and searched his face, but his eyes remained closed, and his face blank and utterly impassive, so she decided to take his question at face value.

"It's going well. I actually sort of missed getting to help so many different people and fixing lots of little injuries instead of just focusing on one person and one particularly difficult case."

Giving up on her half-hearted attempt at meditation, she smiled and drew her legs up to her chest, resting her chin on her knees. "The nurses and the other medic-nin seemed really happy to have me back, too--probably because it means less work for them, but hey, I still felt appreciated." She went on to tell him a little bit about her first few days back at her regular job, ending with a rather humorous anecdote that concerned Shizune and the current lamentable state of Sakura's office ("I opened the door and found myself standing knee-deep in paper…I nearly had to use a shovel to dig Shizune out of there.")

After his low chuckle died away, they were quiet again for a long while, until Neji broke the silence once more. "How is he doing? Any changes?"

"No, he's the same," Sakura sighed, idly plucking and tossing away blades of grass, watching them drift lazily through the warm summer air. She didn't have to ask who "he" was; apparently she'd been right in her previous assumption about Neji's first question. "But he's not faking it this time, that much is certain. We've done enough tests to know."

"And you haven't come up with any way to help him?"

Another sigh, this one even more despondent-sounding than the first, and when she made no other reply, Neji assumed she'd shaken her head negatively.

"We've given him several different intravenous administrations, and I've tried every medical jutsu that sounded even remotely helpful, but nothing has had any effect so far." She scowled thoughtfully, the expression approaching a pout, and hunched her shoulders, hugging her knees a bit more tightly. "It just doesn't make any _sense_...I mean, physically, he's in perfect condition. This coma is psychiatric--it's totally mental--and as far as I can tell, it's self-induced."

The Hyuuga's brows contracted in careful contemplation. "I see. That's too bad. Perhaps if there was some way for you to actually get inside his mind and figure out what he's thinking, you might get somewhere with him."

He heard a sharp intake of breath, then a swift rustle of grass, and he knew from the sound that Sakura had gotten to her feet, and quite hurriedly at that. Opening his eyes to glance up at her in consternation, he found her just _standing_ there, looking completely thunderstruck, as if considering some vital, profound new idea. He was watching so closely he could actually see it on her face when something clicked in her head, and then without either a warning or a word of farewell she abruptly tore off, heading straight for Konoha.

Neji looked after her in mild astonishment, but made no move to follow.

* * *

Yamanaka Ino was enjoying a relaxing afternoon snack at her favorite tea shop when the hurricane hit. She had just set down her cup of green tea and was reaching for her dango when suddenly Sakura appeared out of nowhere and skidded to a stop in front of her, catching herself on the table to arrest her considerable forward momentum.

"What the—?"

The whole table lurched as the pink-haired medic nearly slammed into it, sending both tea and dumplings flying; Ino instinctively twisted in her seat to avoid receiving a lapful of steaming tea, simultaneously shooting out a hand and snatching her stick of dango from the air. The blonde turned an incredulous (and decidedly irritated) stare on her childhood friend, who was standing over her panting, arms still braced on the table, eyes alight with a strange gleam.

"Sakura? What the hell—?"

"Ino!" the medic-nin burst out, grabbing the other girl's shoulders and shaking her. "Ino, I need your help! I mean, I still have to ask Tsunade-shishou about this and maybe Kakashi-sensei too, but Neji and I were talking and we came up with an idea!"

"Whoa, Forehead, slow down!" The tall blonde frowned, obviously confused by Sakura's outburst, and for once her cluelessness was totally justified. "What's this all about?"

Releasing the blonde's shoulders and dropping into the seat across from her best female friend, Sakura took a deep, calming breath, then smiled sweetly as she asked a question she was pretty sure she already knew the answer to: "Ino, how would you like to help me save Sasuke-kun?"

* * *

Sakura dragged her feet a bit as she moved down the street, head bowed and shoulders slumped as she mulled over the very discouraging conversation she'd just had with Ino:

"I'm sorry, Sakura, but even if it wasn't absolutely forbidden for me to teach you one of my family's secret jutsus, there's no guarantee you'd be able to learn it anyway, or that you'd be able to use it the way you want to." The blonde truly did look remorseful, which was really all that kept the pink-haired girl from throwing a very undignified fit; the lack of sleep in recent days had made her patience (which was oftentimes tenuous at best) practically nonexistent. "Anyway, you know there's a family affinity for these things…it would probably take months for you to learn."

She _did_ know that, Ino was right…and somehow she also knew with dread certainty that she didn't _have_ months.

_What happened to the good old days when Ino would do anything for Sasuke-kun?_ Sakura wondered glumly. _I guess she finally grew up. And I…_ She let her thoughts on that matter trail off, though not before Inner Sakura managed to get out a quick, _**I thought you moved on, too! Don't tell me that THOSE feelings for him are returning! HA! Pathetic! It's been ten years and you haven't really changed at all!**_

She shook her head hard to clear that kind of thought away. She needed to focus, she needed to find something, and she needed to find something fast…

Absentmindedly she scuffed one foot in the dirt, though that scarcely left a mark on the hard-packed road. _But right now, I'm all out of ideas. And after what Tsunade-shishou said earlier…_

"Sakura-chan!"

She looked up at the cheerful greeting, though she knew who it was even without looking (of course, pretty much _everyone_ in Konoha could easily recognize the brazen voice of Uzumaki Naruto--they'd all heard it often enough, and generally at a high volume too), to find the Kyuubi container standing directly in front of her, smiling his eternally impish smile as if there was nothing wrong in the whole entire world.

Unable to endure the brightness of his smile in her current bleak mood, she averted her eyes, her chin dropping nearly to her chest. "Hey Naruto," she mumbled, staring fixedly at a crack in a nearby wall. "So why did you want to see me?"

Noting her dejected mien, Naruto clamped down on his excitement, concern overtaking his regular enthusiasm. "Come on, Sakura-chan," he said in a gentler, more subdued tone, taking her by the elbow and steering her towards a nearby bench. "I need to talk to you about something important."

Naruto had been pretty dejected himself on returning from the recon mission to the Sound Country—at least at first. After a week and half of moping about, however, he'd thought things over again, and had come to the same conclusion as Sakura, albeit through decidedly different reasoning: there _had_ to be something they were overlooking, there just had to be. Regardless of the past, his faith in Sasuke wasn't completely gone yet, and that faith wouldn't allow him to believe anything less.

After settling themselves side by side on the bench, Naruto turned his head to look down at his old teammate and best friend, taking in her dull eyes and downcast expression. "What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" he asked carefully, deciding that what he had to say could wait long enough for him to listen to whatever was bothering her.

She exhaled a slow, shallow breath, sagging where she sat. "Tsunade-shishou wants me to give up on Sasuke," she said in a low voice. "She thinks that it might be best to just…let him go…" She clenched her fists in her skirt, watching her knuckles slowly turn white. "I don't want to, Naruto," she half-whispered, then glanced over at the blonde, who she found staring grimly down at his own folded hands.

After a long moment he said quietly, "Ero-sennin told me a long time ago that I should forget about Sasuke…that it was foolish to try to help him, and that he wasn't really my friend since he'd tried to hurt me. But…" His expression softened, a small smile curving along his lips. "But of course, I couldn't forget, and I ended up being a fool…and gladly."

Happy relief flooded through her (why was it that Naruto always seemed able to make her feel so much better about situations like this?), and Sakura wrapped both her arms around one of his, hugging it close before looking up into his face and giving him a warm smile. "We were fools together."

"Yup. And we still are."

"But we were right in the end, you know," she said, resting her head against his shoulder. "You brought him back, just like you promised."

Naruto snorted. "Took me long enough." He gave her a crooked smile. "Heaven forbid he should ever leave again, but if he does, I promise I'll get him back faster next time."

"You'd better. I'm not getting any younger, you know."

"Ah, but Sakura-chan will _always _be beautiful."

She couldn't help but blush a bit at that statement, then sat back to get a better look at his face, trying to see if he really meant what he'd said; the sincerity in his genuinely affectionate smile was reassuring. "You're a shameless flatterer, Naruto," she said with forced levity, trying to brush off his compliment. Her cheeks remained a rosy pink, however.

He flashed her a toothy grin, noting the lingering blush. "Yeah, but only when I really mean it," he said with a wink.

"I _knew_ there was a reason that you were my best friend," she chuckled, giving his arm a playful squeeze.

"Of course. You've gotta have _someone_ around to boost your ego, Sakura-chan—you really don't give yourself enough credit most of the time."

"Well if you'd just give me about a tenth of _your _overblown ego, I'd be set for years, if not life."

"Fair enough," the blonde laughed. "Anyway, I bet you wanna know why I wanted to meet with you, don't you?"

Sakura smirked. "I thought you just wanted to see me, since you _missed_ me so much," she teased.

Naruto merely grinned at the jab and ruffled her hair. "Well, yeah, there was that…but I also have a plan!"

The medic-nin gave him a wary look as she smoothed her hair down once more. "What sort of plan?"

"A _good_ one!"

She crossed her arms over her chest, one eyebrow arched. "Is this another plan to make yourself super strong in a short period of time, like when you were first working with your elemental chakra?" She shook her head. "You _know_ what I think about shortcuts--in the end they just screw you over."

"Yeah," Naruto said, casting a meaningful look in the direction of the hospital building. "And make you think the sky has eyeballs, apparently." Sakura didn't have to ask to know he was referring to Sasuke's odd ramblings. "But no, this plan is nothing like that."

"Then what—?"

"It's a plan to help Sasuke!" the Kyuubi container stated matter-of-factly.

Predictably the pink-haired girl leaned in a bit, obviously intrigued. "I'm listening."

Naruto leaned in as well, dropping his voice to a ragged half-whisper, blue eyes gleaming with a mixture of mischief and excitement. "You know the scroll room in the Hokage Tower? Well, I was thinking—"

"No way, Naruto," she cut in, the goody-two-shoes honor student side of her personality instantly kicking into overdrive. "I'm _not_ breaking into the Hokage Tower in the middle of the night! Do you have _any_ idea how much trouble we'll be in if we get caught? You got away with it before because you were just a kid who didn't know any better, so they wrote it off as mischief, but we're both adults and ANBU to boot, so I doubt they'd be so lenient, and I really don't see how us getting put on probation will help Sasuke-kun at _all_—"

Naruto interrupted her before she could finish her tirade. "Do you want to hear the rest of my plan, or do you wanna argue about it before you've even heard the whole thing?" he asked in mild exasperation.

Sakura shut her mouth with an audible clack. She had to admit that Naruto's plans were usually pretty good ones, so it would be prudent to at least listen to the whole thing first before rejecting it.

One side of the hyperactive blonde's mouth pulled back in a lopsided smile at her abrupt silence. "Alright then. Here's what we're going to do..."

* * *

"Just for the record, I _still _oppose this plan," Sakura hissed at the enthusiastically grinning blonde at her side.

"Whatever," Naruto said, sticking his tongue out at her. "You're just jealous that I came up with it before you did."

Sakura rolled her eyes in response. "This was a mistake," she groaned, rubbing her wide forehead as if she had suddenly gotten an intense migraine.

Instantly the Kyuubi container's manner switched from teasing to reassuring, and he gave her shoulder a quick, comforting pat. "Look, like I said before, don't worry about the security—I can get us both in easily. I did this before when I was _twelve,_ after all. And if you're really worried about getting caught, I'll act as lookout for you."

Resigned to whatever consequences her forthcoming actions might bring about, the pink-haired kunoichi sighed and soundlessly crossed the final hundred yards of roofs and buildings to crouch on the outside of the tower, focusing her chakra in her feet to adhere to the vertical surface. Naruto joined her an instant later and, gesturing for her to follow him, carefully and quietly made his way over to a prominent window.

The Hokage Tower's security had gotten somewhat better since Naruto had broken in when he was twelve; regardless of that fact, it only took him a kunai and few minutes of fiddling with wires to get them in through the large double-paned window that, as expected, opened up into a familiar but currently darkened hallway.

After slipping through, they padded silently down the corridor side by side until they reached the scroll room, where Naruto took up his previously designated post in the door's shadowy alcove while Sakura crept inside.

Moving cautiously through the darkened room, she made her way around the tables and towering bookshelves to the locked door at the back of the room. It only took her a moment to pick the lock; once inside she left the door propped open (so she could hear Naruto's warning, should he give one), then flipped on the lights, which were surprisingly dim, and knelt to examine the piles of dusty scrolls.

It still surprised her somewhat that Naruto had come up with this idea; even though they'd been teammates for over ten years now, the periodic ingeniousness of his plans still took her unawares.

_The forbidden scrolls…how could I have forgotten about these?_ she mused, shaking her head at herself as she bent closer to look them over more carefully. Tsunade had let her look through pretty much everything else in the scroll room, but Sakura knew that the Hokage wouldn't have given her access to anything she deemed particularly dangerous, so there was a chance that she might actually find something _useful_ if she looked through these previously restricted scrolls.

After a few moments of trying to dig through them all one by one, she simply scooped up most of them--a sizeable armful--and set them on a nearby table. Taking a seat at said table, she began her rapid perusal of each document, and as she looked through them she put them back in their respective cubbyholes—it was much more efficient, and would make things quite a bit easier if she ended up having to run for it.

"Found anything?" Naruto whispered in a mercifully and uncharacteristically low voice just as she unfurled yet another scroll, this one considerably smaller and slimmer than most of the others she'd gone through thus far in the twenty-odd minutes she'd been at her searching.

"Nothing yet," she murmured absently in reply as she quickly scanned the remarkably tiny, meticulous strokes of the characters contained in this newest prospect. _Actually…I think I_ have_ found something… Yes, I actually think this'll work…_

_**The**__** Chisei Chikizuna no Jutsu,**_ her hungry eyes read, practically devouring the words on the scroll,_** creates a temporary but intensely powerful mental bond using the combined blood of those involved in the jutsu. The connection is so strong that, if successful, the primary user's mind and soul are temporarily transferred into the subject's own mind, and once there can alter or influence certain areas of the subject's psyche, and in certain cases, can even make contact with the subject's own mind and soul…**_

The rest of the rather lengthy explanation made it sound vaguely similar to the Chikatsu Saisei no Jutsu, though the extensive diagrams indicated that the seal pattern, while not quite as large, was vastly different, and perhaps even more complex.

_Yes, but how many people does it take__ to perform…?_ Unrolling the scroll even more, she scanned it almost desperately; then her eyes fastened on the exact words that she wanted to badly to see:

_**Can**__** be performed by one person—**_

_Oh, thank God…_

—_**Though only at**_ _**extensive risk to both parties. However, while it is a great deal more dangerous, the jutsu is also a great deal more likely to succeed if it is only performed by a single shinobi on a single subject: the more minds involved, the more complicated the process is.**_

_Heh,_ she thought, one corner of her mouth turning up in a sardonic half-smile as she continued to read through all the potential risks._ I _definitely_ can't tell Naruto about this…_ She knew he'd be worried sick, and would probably insist on performing it by himself, nevermind the fact that he'd be almost certain to fail and kill or at least mentally cripple both Sasuke and himself due to his less-than-perfect manipulation of his chakra...

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto suddenly hissed in a fierce whisper. "Someone's coming! Take whatever you've got and let's run for it!"

Wordlessly she obeyed, hurriedly re-rolling the precious scroll and shoving it to the bottom of her hip pouch. If the blonde asked her, she hadn't found anything that sounded like it would work, and had used those final few seconds to put everything back the way she'd found it.

She hastily replaced the few remaining scrolls before darting out into the hallway and out through the window they'd come in, Naruto following along behind almost as closely as her own shadow.

* * *

As it turned out, Naruto didn't get a chance to ask about it that night—as per their original plan, they split up and took off back to their respective apartments as quickly as possible as a safety precaution against being caught—and by the time he saw her the next day, the scroll was already hidden safely away in a sealed metal box beneath the floorboards in Sakura's bedroom. There was really no need to tell him about what she'd found, she reasoned to herself, since he couldn't really be of any help: he'd only agonize over the danger she was putting herself in and quite likely get in the way of things.

That night Sakura went to bed smiling for the first time in well over a month, and when she closed her eyes and took stock of the feelings and emotions running through her head, she found that the misery and despair of the previous weeks had been replaced by a deep sense of happiness, accomplishment, contentment…and above all, hope.


	8. Which Implements the Plan

The thin, twisting rivulet curled around the curve of his pale wrist, scarlet on marble, dripping down into a shallow silver basin held by a hand that was only slightly less pale. After filling the dish almost halfway, Sakura pressed her hand to the small cut she'd made on Sasuke's arm, easily closing the minor wound; then, focusing her chakra into a sharp edge, she made an identical cut on the underside of her own forearm, carefully counting the crimson droplets as they fell, watching the liquid representation of her own life mingle with the Uchiha's.

There had been a time when the sight of blood had left Sakura feeling decidedly woozy; thankfully those days were long past. She'd spent so much time practically wallowing in the stuff both in the hospital's Intensive Care Units and out on the mission field that now she scarcely batted an eyelash when dealing with any amount of it. Even Tsunade, who had herself experienced a long bout of hemophobia and would have been the first to sympathize with any discomfort experienced by her young apprentice, had marveled at her "remarkable constitution."

Sakura had never been so glad of that remarkable constitution as she was now.

Once the silver bowl contained a more or less balanced amount of their blood, she closed up the wound in her own arm and, glancing over the scroll once more, moved on to the next step. Dipping her fingers into the still-warm, sticky substance, she carefully began to smear scarlet characters in the pattern indicated by the scroll: first looped into a large circle that brushed the edges of the room, then into a smaller circle inside the first, then an eight-sided star pattern that ran through them both, connecting them; next came half circles on the sides of the star, followed by seemingly random lines and shapes here and there; then another, tighter circle immediately surrounding the subject…

Finally finishing the intricate seal (the outer portion of it, in any case) she moved back to the pale form still lying on the bed in the center of the room. He was uncovered and clad in only a pair of shorts--he had to be, since according to the scroll he would be nearly covered in symbols--and in the dim light, his skin looked even more perfect, a smooth, bloodless grey ivory.

She hesitated at besmirching his body with the claret characters required by the jutsu, not entirely certain as to why she wavered; in a moment's time, however, the hesitance had evaporated, and she bent to the task.

As she smeared characters across his chest, midriff, and limbs, it gradually dawned on her that she wasn't at all frightened, which surprised her a bit. She knew that by all rights her hands should have been shaking with fear, making it difficult to leave the appropriate markings, but they were steady and sure and the markings were neat and perfect; the only emotions that she could find within herself were determination and a deadly calm.

It truly was a delicate and dangerous procedure, and she knew it, too. The slightest smear, the smallest mistake in alignment, just one incorrect or omitted character, would cause the jutsu to fail, and the results of that were far from pleasant. Mental instability or brain damage to either, both, or (if it was being performed by a group) all involved was the "most likely" result should the jutsu go awry, though the scroll also mentioned that the primary user (in this case Sakura) might slip into an oftentimes irreversible coma, or might end up trapped in the subject (Sasuke)'s mind for good.

None of those options were particularly appealing to the pink-haired medic-nin, so she was determined to do this right. (Not that she was worried, really: this was _book_ stuff after all, her specialty.)

While she was waiting the required half-hour for the blood to dry and the seal to set itself, after double and triple checking each symbol just to be absolutely certain that they were all correct (and then hiding the forbidden scroll at the bottom of one of her desk drawers in her office three floors down), only then did the faintest traces of doubt begin tickling her conscience. Was she just being selfish by forcing him to stay alive? She almost felt guilty. After all, Sasuke had made it pretty clear that he didn't want to be there with them, that he didn't even want to be alive at all.

_"Of course, we don't always want what's really best for us, do we?"_ Tsunade's voice suddenly echoed in her memory, followed by Neji's, Naruto's and her own:

"_You saved a life, which is what you have been trained to do. It would have been impossible for you as a medic-nin to merely stand by and let him die. Had I been in your place, I would have done the same; I would have saved him, too. There should be no guilt in what you have done."_

"_Don't give up on him. Like Tsunade-baa-chan said, if anyone has a chance of helping him, it's you. So don't give up."_

_"I won't. Not ever."_

_Not ever._

Her mouth set in a firm, solemn line, Sakura slowly etched the required symbols into Sasuke's forearms--_chi_ (blood), _kizuna_ (bond), _chisei_ (mind), _tōjō_ (entrance), _yurusu_ (allow), _seishin_ (spirit), _chōwa_ (unity)--before making identical cuts on her own forearms. Then, knuckles clenched white around the scalpel, she carved the symbol _tomodachi_ (friend) in the palm of one of her hands and _ai_ (love) in the other, pressed them together with great deliberation, and carefully began forming the necessary hand signs.

* * *

When they had first become teammates on their graduation from the Academy, Sakura hadn't known very much about Sasuke's past. She had always been curious, but she honestly didn't know how to broach the subject—he seemed so sensitive about it, and he wasn't exactly the most communicative person in the world either, so there was no guarantee that he would have answered her even if she had asked. He probably would have brushed her off as usual, insulted her ninja skills (or lack thereof) for good measure, and then gone off in an even worse mood than usual with his apparently quite troubling past at the forefront of his mind once more.

Not exactly the twelve-year-old love-struck Sakura's ideal situation. And so she'd never asked, not daring to risk incurring his anger. She'd since regretted this lack of nerve on her part, but she had ended up learning quite a bit about him through secondary sources.

She'd learned that his entire clan had been killed by his older brother, who had then left Konoha to become a member of the Akatsuki. She'd learned that Itachi had been an exceptional ninja, a true prodigy who effortlessly excelled in everything he attempted, and she was smart enough to guess that there must have been some sort of sibling rivalry there. She'd seen the terrible condition that Itachi had reduced him to after their first encounter in four years, and she'd also seen how much that absolute defeat had disturbed her teammate. Later on she'd even managed to pry information about the Sharingan and its ultimate form out of Naruto, who looked decidedly dejected both during and after relaying everything he knew about it to her, and Sakura had been properly horrified on learning that the _Mangekyō_ could only be obtained by killing one's closest friend.

But none of that prepared her for actually experiencing Sasuke's memories firsthand.

* * *

There was something glowing, rippling up ahead; she could sense it. Sakura's spirit-self slowly opened its eyes, staring in wonder at the brightness before her. It almost looked like a collage of golden autumn leaves, though there were bright spots of clear, tawny light shining through in places.

She drifted to a halt, hesitating once more just inches away from contacting the shimmering whatever-it-was, which Sakura strongly suspected to be Sasuke's mind. It didn't really look like a brain, which surprised her a bit_. I wonder if this is what Ino sees at first whenever she takes control of someone else's body._ The thought skittered rodent-like through her head, then disappeared as she focused once more, reaching out with ghostly hands, pushing them firmly through the aureate bubble, the rest of her spirit-self sliding through after.

* * *

The first thing that hit her--and it hit her like a freight train--was the pain. It wasn't a physical pain at all; it was worse than that. It was a gut-twisting, breath-choking, chest-contracting _ache,_ a feeling of intense inferiority and failure…

…And it was a feeling that Sakura recognized quite well.

Accompanying it was heartbreak, which she had also experienced herself, though his was of a slightly different flavor: richer, deeper, more mature, and infinitely more bitter. She had forgiven Sasuke for breaking her heart, and she still cared about him despite the fact that he'd ignored, or else outright rejected, her offerings of love, affection, and a relationship; but for Sasuke, his heartbreak was comprised mostly of loneliness, of yearning for the loving touch of people long gone who could never return.

It was nearly stifling, and Sakura had to struggle not to gasp and choke as she forced her way through…and into his memories.

_Of course,_ she thought as she watched a few glimmering snatches of his past flit by, _I suppose it makes sense. One's mind stores all sorts of things, memories included…_

Moving forward once more (though how exactly she knew which way _forward_ was, she had no idea), she allowed one of the gleaming, transparent recollections to drift over her, and instantly her sight was filled with a bright street and the back of someone's head, her ears with the sound of a voice that was very familiar, and yet different, her skin aware of the arms tucked under and around her legs while (his? her?) own arms looped around that someone's neck.

She could feel the deep sense of exhaustion settled firmly over her body--no, this was _Sasuke's_ body, _Sasuke's_ memory, she had to remind herself--as well as a strange mixture of gratefulness and humiliation towards the someone carrying him along.

_He both loves and hates this person very much,_ Sakura knew—she _really_ knew for the first time exactly how Sasuke felt—and with a jolt, she realized just who this someone was. _This…this is _Itachi_ carrying him…_

"Nii-san," Sasuke said in an adorably high and childlike voice, "I'll walk."

"Don't push yourself."

Sakura shivered at that velvet voice; he sounded so much like Sasuke had at that age, and yet so different as well. It seemed a terrible thing to be glad of, but Sakura was in no small measure relieved that _this_ Uchiha was no longer among the living: he _sounded_ dangerous.

"What's wrong?"

"This is where Tou-san works, right?" A large building filled her eyes, the focus of which was the blue four-pointed star symbol on the building's front.

"Yeah, it's the Konoha Military Police Headquarters."

"I've been wondering about this for a while, but why is the Uchiha Clan's crest on the Military Police's emblem?"

Itachi seemed surprised by the question. "You noticed?"

"Of course!"

Itachi went on to explain how the ancestors of the Uchiha Clan had established the police force, so their crest was the primary focus of the Military Police's emblem; Sakura smiled sadly as Sasuke excitedly declared that when he grew up, he'd join the police force, too.

_So that was your dream once upon a time, when you still believed in dreams…_

Sakura watched, intrigued, as Itachi and Sasuke met their father, saw how Itachi sensed Sasuke's hurt and disappointment at their father's disregard for the younger of his two sons, observed how the older brother carefully maneuvered the father into the position he desired. And while she could feel Sasuke's gratitude towards the older boy for his actions, Sakura could also feel the bewildering distance that he felt between Itachi and himself…

That memory slowly faded away, and Sakura found herself almost instantly reaching for another, then another and another....

She quickly found that most of these early memories were dominated by solitude, frustration, and an intense hunger for approval, though there were also memories that contained a beautiful, kind-faced woman with black eyes and long, dark hair that brought a wash of happiness, appreciation, adoration, and deep, unconditional love. _His mother,_ she thought in awe as she watched the woman carefully tend to some burn marks on Sasuke's face. It did not escape Sakura's notice that her current hairstyle was very much like this woman's. _Mikoto-san,_ the medic-nin reminded herself as she watched the mother and son interact; it was not difficult to tell that his mother was the most precious person in the world to him.

(This also explained where he'd gotten his good looks—he favored his mother very much, she thought with an inward chuckle.)

But his mother's kindness did not change the fact that Itachi was always ahead, always better somehow, and Sasuke had to struggle just to keep up; surpassing him was impossible. And oh, how he _longed_ to be recognized by his father…

And so he trained and studied and worked hard—he was naturally gifted, yes, but even innate talent needed to be honed and perfected. The book learning came easily enough (_though not as easily as it comes to me,_ Sakura thought rather smugly), but though he practiced with his kunai and shuriken until he was exhausted, somehow he still just wasn't as good as Itachi, and the feeling of inferiority ate at him ruthlessly.

_Nevermind the fact that Itachi is several years older and that Sasuke would probably have caught up with him in time,_ the medic-nin thought with a skeptical snort as the familiar sensation of uselessness and inadequacy washed over her yet again. She was drawn forward into still more memories, a grouping of them which lay dull and flat, as if their shine had been worn away by frequent use. Sakura's eyes widened as she took these ones in—they were terrible and traumatic, not to mention emotionally and psychologically scarring:

She stared in shock as Sasuke ran through the destroyed Uchiha section of Konoha, his wide eyes darting everywhere, taking in the scattered kunai and shuriken amidst the blood and motionless bodies of his once-proud clan; she watched in helpless horror as he found his parents lying on the floor in a pool of blood and moonlight; and she nearly choked on rage and loathing as Itachi stepped from the shadows and, with infinite coolness, admitted to being the one responsible for this nightmare-turned-reality.

Sudden, intense anger rushed through him at the sheer stupidity of Itachi's reasoning ('To test my capacity'? 'To measure the depth of my container'? _That_ was Itachi's motivation? And he was supposed to be the _genius_ of the family?), and he lunged to his feet, rushing headlong at the older boy, though what he was going to do when he reached him was a mystery, as Sasuke was unarmed while Itachi certainly was not. However, before he could even land a punch, his brother had driven a fist into his gut, dropping him to the floor.

Fear was pounding through Sakura's veins now along with anger, and she recognized both as belonging to Sasuke and the memory, though there were other, fainter emotions that had been attached to that horrific event later on that she could feel as well: hatred, shame, and self-loathing.

Then Sasuke ran, begging for his life, Itachi followed and appeared before him once more, and Sakura took in all in from the younger brother's eyes, staring up at the implacable face of the Uchiha prodigy through an eight-year-old's tear- and panic-blurred vision.

"This must be a lie." The medic-nin could feel Sasuke's body trembling in fear and exhaustion. "This isn't how my brother is. Because…"

"I played the role of the older brother you wanted," Itachi cut in calmly, his tone flat and harsh, "to test your capacity. The one who will test _my_ capacity…you have that potential." His eyes, dark and cloudy and so much like their mother's, narrowed as he glared down at his younger brother. "You thought of me as unpleasant and hated me. You've always wanted to surpass me. That's why I'm going to let you live…for my sake."

Confusion, anger, fear, and several other emotions all melded together in a bewildering rush as Itachi went on, explaining the awful secret of the _Mangekyō_ Sharingan and hinting at another secret relating to the Uchiha clan itself.

"If you can activate it, the number of people, including me, who can use the _Mangekyō_ Sharingan will be three. If that happens—" here he gave a dark chuckle "—there is a reason to let you live. But at the moment…" Itachi's face contracted with loathing as he turned his head sideways and shifted his balance, causing Sasuke to gasp and flinch _"…you aren't even worth killing."_ He closed his eyes, disdain clear on his usually smooth countenance. "My foolish little brother. If you want to kill me, despise me, hate me, and live a loathsome life…run, run, and cling to life. And then some day, when you have the same eyes I do, come before me." The older boy's eye flickered open, revealing that despicable three-bladed pinwheel, and Sasuke suddenly found that he could not look away.

Then, mercifully, the surrounding street was wavering, the ground was rushing up at his face, and everything went black once more.

Slowly the world faded back into existence, and Sakura found that Sasuke was staring up at the familiar (to her) ceiling of the Konoha hospital.

_A dream…?_ he wondered, then winced as sitting up caused a pang to run through his arm…the one Itachi had grazed with a shuriken back when he'd first found his parent's bodies. He slipped out of the hospital past the gossiping nurses, then ran to the Uchiha sector of the city, pausing to catch his breath as rain-laden grey clouds skidded by overhead. As he stepped inside, the rain began to fall, hesitantly at first, as if unsure as to whether it wanted to touch the ground where such atrocities had so recently occurred, though soon it was rushing down in torrents.

Standing there in the rain, the only survivor of the Uchiha clan massacre was forced to accept that what had happened the night before was not just a dream: it was real. The realization of that fact nearly crushed him, and Sakura too; she had little doubt that her physical body had tears pouring from the eyes.

_Oh, Sasuke…I had no idea. But of course I didn't…how could you share something like this, after all?_ The medic-nin shook her head: his introversion and moodiness seemed a great deal more understandable and forgivable when one knew what he'd been through…in fact, she doubted that she would be able to blame him for much of anything any more, not after seeing this.

Sasuke slowly made his way to his empty home, accompanied only by the hollow memories of loved ones and the hissing droplets dashing themselves violently to the ground all around him. He numbly wandered through the rooms, so vacant of light and human warmth, yet so full of memories, not caring that he was leaving a trail of wet footprints on the polished wood floors. At last he collapsed on he knees before the white-chalk outlines of his parents' bodies, smears of blood still staining the floor; and as the lightning crashed and the rain continued to beat relentlessly on the roof, tears poured down his face, mingling with the rainwater that still dripped from his saturated clothing.

The memory slowly melted away, and then there were snatches of the four long years of loneliness, where he ate, slept, read, trained, did everything alone. There were people around him nearly all the time, but he closed himself off to them emotionally: making friends, making attachments, would not help him kill Itachi, and that was all that mattered.

…At least, it was all that mattered until he was placed in Team 7 under one Hatake Kakashi.

Suddenly he was forced to really interact and rely on people once again, though at first he resented it more than anything else. Naruto was stupid, a loudmouthed buffoon who talked big, but was insufferably weak. Sakura found that she herself had also been regarded as useless, and of course annoying, though there was a grudging respect for her book smarts and her intelligence. Kakashi-sensei was viewed as a perverted old man, and since he was stronger than Sasuke at the time, there was resentment there as well, though it was accompanied by a smug certainty that, in time, he would easily surpass the silver-haired jounin.

…But then something started to happen. Instead of it being a trial to be endured, the time Sasuke spent with the rest of Team 7 slowly became precious to the Uchiha survivor. Each member, while seen as nothing more than a hindrance at first, gradually became special to him in various, irresistible ways; bonds were formed, and Sasuke found that he could not break them...and for a long time, he didn't want to.

Once again, it was Itachi who destroyed the peace in his life, and Sasuke's focus suddenly snapped back to his goal of killing his older brother. Anger and self-loathing filled his consciousness once more as the lingering inferiority complex from his childhood came roaring back stronger than ever.

…And as much as the idea of leaving Naruto, Kakashi, and herself behind--the first people to truly care about him for a long time--hurt him, Sasuke's heart had been dedicated to revenge much longer than it had been dedicated to any of them.

Regardless of that, she watched as Kakashi attempted to reason with him after Sasuke and Naruto had nearly killed each other on the roof of the Konoha hospital, and she felt a wash of pleasure when she found that the Uchiha survivor truly did think of her as an "important friend."

A blurry rush of fighting, a sense of pain, panic, and angry desperation slashed through that memory however. Following closely after that, Sakura caught a glimpse of a night she remembered all too well: an image of her own tear-streaked face and the sound of her trembling voice begging him not to go...but this time, she experienced firsthand the feeling of cold irritation that slowly faded into a wash of gratitude tempered by a faint sense of regret that he had felt towards her for attempting to stop him, though by that point his resolve had already hardened far beyond anything she could say or do. Naruto's method of persuasion had been decidedly more violent and physically painful, but equally futile; after a long, awe-inspiring battle, he left Naruto unconscious and continued resolutely on his path into darkness.

Then the memories became less distinct, melting into a more fluid substance, flowing by in a blur--the two-and-a-half years spent with Orochimaru, no doubt--though from the brief glimpses that she did get, Sakura was actually rather glad that those memories were jumbled and unfocused. _I'll bet that's just one more effect of that jutsu he said Itachi used on him,_ Sakura thought. _Destroying Sasuke's memories, and thus the knowledge of many of Orochimaru's forbidden techniques in the process, most likely. _The actions of Sasuke's elder brother, while often terrible and even outright sickening, still confused her somewhat. _I wonder if Sasuke ever really found out why Itachi did what he did…I wonder if Itachi ever actually told anyone. Somehow, I doubt it._

Her attention was suddenly pulled back into the stream of memories as a startlingly clear one floated to the surface: the new Team 7's first confrontation with Uchiha Sasuke, the shinobi of Sound.

His feelings towards them bordered on apathy, and the memory seemed odd and cloudy, as if he'd been drugged or under the influence of some strange jutsu, but sudden, shocking clarity overcame that cloudiness when they actually attacked him. She felt his sharp but brief flicker of surprise as she watched her fifteen-year-old self leap forward at him, only to be knocked aside by Yamato, who took the point of Sasuke's kusanagi in his shoulder for his trouble.

Slowly that memory faded back into the blurry stream, and for a long time Sakura could make out nothing from the jumbled mass of pain, regret, bloodlust, disgust, and dull, dogged hatred that swirled and eddied around her.

Things were momentarily comprehensible once again as she saw Orochimaru stepping towards him, a snaky leer stretched across this unnaturally pale face, and then there was an explosion of unprecedented physical pain; in the tiny part of her consciousness not overwhelmed by that unmatched agony, Sakura could see snatches of purple flame and some dark _thing_ crouching there before her... Then suddenly the pain stopped, and everything went dark.

_Just like Sasuke said when he told me what happened…_Sakura thought thickly, vestiges of that unparalleled pain still sending an occasional twinge through her. There were a few ripples and slight disturbances in the smooth, inky blackness that surrounded her, but for the most part there was nothing but silky satin jet. Despite knowing how dangerous such an action was, the medic-nin felt her eyelids slowly dragging downwards.

_So this is what he meant…when he said it was peaceful…_

She had begun to cease fighting the soothing murkiness that had wrapped itself shroud-like around her when everything suddenly snapped crystal-clear once more…and Sakura found herself staring straight into murderous, black-swirled crimson eyes through eyes that she knew were of an identical hue.

_Itachi._

"Foolish little brother," he was saying in that sonorous, perpetually calm tone that made Sakura shiver in fear. "I know for a fact that Uzumaki Naruto is still alive; thus, you do not possess the _Mangekyō._ You are still far too weak to challenge me."

"Shut up, bastard," Sasuke hissed, stepping towards him. "I've gone through hell to stand here today…I've done as you said and nursed my hatred while I lived the most loathsome life I can imagine. And now…" He took an additional two steps, then stopped, falling into a defensive stance. "…Now, I'll kill you."

Itachi snorted. "At least you've learned not to rush at me blindly, Sasuke." A cold smile twisted his lips and his eyes narrowed in anticipation. "I sincerely hope that you will make this worth my time. If you did otherwise, that would be…shameful, would it not? But first—" in a flash he was standing before Sasuke, the tomoe in his eyes expanding and melding into those all-too-familiar pinwheels, and the younger brother found with a pang of horror that once again he could not look away or even move "—let us ensure that there will be no intrusion upon our fight…"

Sasuke gasped as a flash of intense pain lanced through his head, followed closely by a sharp _tearing_ sensation, then another and another, as if Itachi was somehow slicing through or ripping away pieces of his mind; Itachi's eyes had narrowed into thin slashes of scarlet, and his hands were carefully folded in the Sign of the Rooster. _"__Fūin Jutsu: Genryū Gaikoku no Hito Fūjin!"_ Despite the nearly blinding pain, Sasuke forced himself to watch closely as his brother's hands flew through a long, complicated series of seals, finally stopping once again in the Sign of the Rooster. Any jutsu Itachi used might prove useful later, and this one seemed to be pushing Orochimaru's psyche forcefully back while his own was being more fully pulled to the forefront; then walls slammed up between himself and Orochimaru, and his mind was entirely his own once more, though his head felt heavy...and certain memories seemed vague or missing altogether. He fancied could feel the snake sannin clawing at the mental barriers Itachi had set up, but for the moment, it seemed as if those barriers would hold.

And suddenly he could move again, and he stumbled backward away from Itachi, clutching his head and glaring at the emotionless face of the shinobi before him.

"That's better," Itachi said with a faint smirk. "Now then…" One dark brow arched upward just slightly. "I thought you were going to kill me?"

With an almost inhuman snarl, Sasuke threw himself forwards, kusanagi already drawn and poised to strike, webs of electricity dancing over and around the blade.

The battle between the last remaining members of the Uchiha Clan (or what Sakura could see of it) was a blur; the brothers' movements were astonishingly quick and fluid, fists and feet flying, jutsus snapped out with unbelievable rapidity, kunai and shuriken hurled with absolute precision, and katana and kusanagi clashing hard enough to throw sparks, and all the while the penetrating gaze of the Sharingan watched and saw all.

But surprisingly enough, the memory felt _dull_ somehow, as if it were something Sasuke wasn't really all that proud of; it was shadowy and largely indistinct, making it hard to distinguish what exactly was going on amidst the speed and confusion of the battle. Fire and electricity and genjutsu were thick, and smoke and the darkness of the forest itself obscured her vision even more.

Then inexplicably the memory seemed to skip ahead, and Sakura was taken aback to find herself staring down at the bloodied form of Uchiha Itachi. A gaping hole had been ripped in his chest, making it obvious that he was not long for this world.

However, Itachi was a being possessed of a rare sort of grace, and that grace did not leave him even when mortally wounded. And even as he lay on the ground in a spreading pool of his own blood, his mien altered not a whit: he was still as calm, arrogant, and self-possessed as the victim as he was as the victor, if not more so.

"Well done, Sasuke," he murmured as the Sharingan slowly faded from his eyes, leaving them cold, black, and empty. "I should not have underestimated you." He smiled faintly to himself, looking vaguely thoughtful. "Mother always said that you were stronger than I thought you were…It would seem that she was right about at least one thing after all."

"You have no right to speak of her that way," the younger brother growled, eyes still scarlet and narrowed in hatred.

Itachi snorted softly. "What are you going to do, Sasuke? Kill me a second time?"

Sasuke clenched his jaw so tightly the muscles ached, but he forced his countenance into a carefully cool and collected expression; even now his brother mocked him! Well, he'd put an end that…

Without a moment's hesitation, he drove the black blade of his kusanagi into Itachi's stomach, his face hard and expressionless and entirely too similar to the one that gazed up at him from the ground.

"…Say that again, bastard," he said, his tone chilling.

Despite his position and the pain he must have been feeling, Itachi's faint smile did not fade; if anything it grew wider. "And what will you do now, Sasuke? Now that you have become…that which you hated…now…that…you…have abandoned everything…and have no bonds…what…now?"

Sasuke did not reply verbally, and his impassive expression did not change, though his knuckles clenched white on the hilt of his kusanagi; almost as an afterthought, he gave it a sharp twist, some dark part of him glorying at how the blood welled up through Itachi's robe as he did so.

"Foolish little brother…still so weak…"

"Shut up! I've won."

"You…haven't _won_…anything…you've…merely proved…that you too…could…not…walk…the path…" He blinked slowly, and his eyes remained half-shut, as if it were too much effort to open them completely. "You…have failed…"

Crimson eyes flicked back up to meet hollow ebony ones, and Sasuke's lips curled in a malicious sneer. "I haven't failed…I haven't failed at all. No, I've finally achieved my goal, finally kept my oath." The smug expression on his face intensified as he gave the kusanagi another slight twist. "In just a short while, I'll finally be rid of you forever."

A tingle of revulsion shivered through the younger brother as he found his sneer, his smug expression mirrored on Itachi's face. "Oh, no, Sasuke…" Itachi chuckled and coughed, the scarlet rivulets already trickling from the corners of his mouth thickening and leaving streaks along his pale cheeks. "No…you will never…be rid…of me…for you see…you _are_ me." The mist hovering in his eyes slowly grew thicker as the lids sunk down over them. "Although…" he breathed ever so softly, "…you are still…so…weak…"

Sasuke stared in fixed horror at the body before him. Suddenly he gritted his teeth and gave the kusanagi a violent twist; bone and muscle gave way with sickening snaps and crunches, accompanied by an increased flow of still-warm blood, but the other man did not respond.

Uchiha Itachi was dead.

With a disgusted grunt Sasuke wrenched his blade free, glaring at the corpse of the man who'd destroyed his life and haunted his nightmares for years. Fury still pounded hotly through him, and he almost gave into the urge to slash and stab at the senseless body before him; all that restrained him was the frustrated knowledge that it would not cause Itachi any pain, and such futile actions were less than worthless.

_Bastard!_ he snarled inwardly, grinding his teeth in helpless rage. _You bastard! I wish I _could _bring you back, and then kill you again!_ It wasn't fair that his anger and his hate hadn't been used up now that Itachi was gone. He needed to harness this energy, needed to use it somehow…

Then, abruptly, the rage and adrenaline and hatred slowly faded away…leaving only a strange emptiness.

_Why?_ he wondered, dispassionately watching the blood dripping off the end of his sword. _I've finally done it, I've finally avenged my clan…why do I feel so…_ Sasuke shook his head hard, carefully wiping his kusanagi clean before sliding it back into its sheath, steadfastly refusing to think about anything other than how fulfilled he should feel now that he'd accomplished his life's goal.

_**Yesss…you accomplissshed your goal…your wisssh has been fulfilled, Sssasssuke-kun…**_ A chilling voice suddenly whispered in his head, and his eyes went wide as he felt Orochimaru stirring inside him once more, although…the snake sannin seemed _different_ somehow, his thoughts more frayed and disjointed…

_**Now it isss time to give the Devil hisss due!**_

Sasuke suddenly found that he couldn't move; blackness was creeping around the edges of his vision, as if he was falling into some sort of bottomless pit, and try though he might to resist it, he was losing control of his body once again, reverting to his old, almost parasitic state of dispassionate observance.

_**Sssleep well, Sssasssuke-kun! I'll take good care of thisss body...very good care of it. And that meansss getting plenty of exercissse…We can't let sssuch wonderful power go to wassste now, can we? No, you are right, we mussst harnessssss it, we mussst ssshare it…with everyone…**_

* * *

In Sakura's opinion, Orochimaru had never been sane. Anyone who thought they could achieve immortality by moving from one body to another every few years, and who had no qualms whatsoever about destroying and/or supplanting the soul already contained therein had to be more than a little crazy (as in "not just screws, but entire pieces of machinery loose"). She had always looked on him with anger, disgust, and a hatred that was probably a great deal closer to jealousy than she would have cared to admit; after all, he_ had_ "stolen away her Sasuke-kun," something she was not inclined to forgive him for. His ruthless, entirely selfish attitude, his penchant for collecting young, often prepubescent boys, and his weird, permanent snake-tongue jutsu and all-around hideously serpentine appearance thoroughly "creeped her out"; and when she learned that his motivation for starting battles was oftentimes nothing more than the fact that he delighted in conflict and unrest, it only intensified her absolute conviction that the snake sannin was, as Naruto had put it on one occasion, "a whole LOTTA bricks short of a load."

And of course, when someone is already mentally unstable, it doesn't take much of a push to send them over the edge, as the next cluster of memories proved.

As Sasuke had suspected, Orochimaru seemed to be suffering some severe ill-effects from the jutsu Itachi had used on them, and while he'd always thought the snake sannin to be a little unstable, now it seemed that he had almost completely lost his mind…and considering how much of a loose cannon Orochimaru had been to begin with, that was a decidedly calamitous occurrence.

Mad with his power, he turned on his followers first, thoughtlessly destroying every last living being in the Village of Sound's current location before filling the tunnels with the roaring flames the Uchiha family was so famous for, and burning everything--corpse, machinery, and furnishings alike--into a fine ash.

After destroying two more of his tunnel-bases in a similar fashion, he turned his mind to juicier prey. The last two places had been disappointingly empty, and destruction was a lot more entertaining when there was an overabundance of people to watch and be killed.

Thus Orochimaru turned his newly-claimed crimson eyes towards the simple agricultural villages of the former Land of Rice Fields.

They had no warning and, simple farmers and businessmen that they were, they put up very little fight…though things wouldn't have gone very differently had they been fully-fledged shinobi villages. Orochimaru was methodical and merciless, killing everyone and everything in each village before setting it all ablaze, using Earth jutsus to destroy the stone houses that did not fall to the flames.

The snake sannin went on and on, seemingly tireless, relishing in the slaughter and the screams of pain and terror, thoroughly delighted with the devastation that he left in his wake…and Sasuke was forced to watch as _his_ hands, _his_ kusanagi, _his_ ninja skills demolished these places…and every man, woman, and child in them.

Normally his will would have dissolved by that time, and Sasuke would have become a mindless non-being, a prisoner and unthinking spectator of whatever Orochimaru did in his body…but this was too much to be borne, too terrible and horrific and altogether so sickeningly _familiar_ that Sasuke was shocked back into sudden self-awareness.

How ironic that the very occurrence that had haunted his dreams for years, that had caused him to awaken, alone, in his small apartment, gasping for air and begging for his life again, tears that he never allowed anyone else to see streaming freely down his face—how ironic it was that that was what saved him in the end.

_NO!_ he thought in horror, feeling Orochimaru's deep sense of satisfaction as he surveyed the total destruction he'd surrounded himself with. _This is wrong! This isn't right! This isn't what I wanted!_

Orochimaru laughed chillingly, using _Sasuke's_ voice (of _course_ it was his voice, but this time Sasuke was aware enough to actually _feel_ his throat vibrating with the noise, and shuddered in violent disgust), and started off once more; there was at least one more village that he knew of—

_This isn't what I wanted, this isn't want I wanted, this isn't what I wanted!_ The desperate thought kept pounding frantically through Sasuke's head, and thus through Sakura's head as well.

Almost frantically Sasuke began to fight for control, though he was largely unsuccessful; Orochimaru had no intention of giving up this marvelous body that he'd waited for so long.

_No! I won't—I won't become my brother!_

After a long, drawn-out struggle, all the Uchiha had managed to do was force his body to move forward half a dozen steps and then stop. _Forcing_ his head to turn to the right, he caught a glimpse of his scarlet-eyed reflection in a broken shop window.

A startling idea struck him, and the scarlet eyes widened momentarily, watching as he fought to fold his hands into the Sign of the Rooster. He breathed a mental sigh of relief, then forced those unwilling hands through a long, complicated series of seals, until finally they were folded once again in the Sign of the Rooster.

"_Fūin Jutsu: Genryū Gaikoku no Hito Fūjin," _he whispered through cracked lips.

Then he was tearing painfully through his own mind, slicing away the dark tendrils that he knew weren't his thoughts, his memories, his ideas or ideals or goals, throwing up walls behind him, pushing and shoving and forcing the ragged, wildly-struggling mind of the snake sannin farther and farther back, until at last there was nowhere left to go but _out_. Sasuke gathered himself for one final push, then with every last scrap of strength and willpower left in him, let loose, sending the warped, cowering form before him flying with a piercing shriek.

Stars exploded before his eyes, and with one final, agonizingly intense throb that felt as though it would split his head in two, Sasuke found himself fully in control of his body once again, and alone in his mind.

His vision swam, but he forced himself to open his eyes, unsure as to what he would find. Almost instantly his sight cleared, and he stared solemnly at what he saw before him: something that resembled a twisted, burned snake was writhing on the ground at his feet. _Finish this,_ some distant part of his mind told him urgently, and with the last of his strength, Sasuke drew his parrying kunai and nearly fell forward onto it, stabbing it repeatedly, finally leaving it dead and motionless and pinned to the ground through the mangled remains of its head.

He stared down at it for a moment, then blinked in surprise. As he watched, the body crumbled away into dust and ash; then a gust of wind caught it and swept it away, scattering the remains and leaving not a trace.

Orochimaru was, at long last, truly gone.

But the damage had already been done; that was plain to see in the flicker of the flames burning through the leveled city.

_My fault,_ Sasuke thought in shock as he slowly pushed himself to his feet, gazing numbly at the destruction surrounding him. _This…is my fault._ He stared down at his newly-reclaimed hands, at the dried blood crusting them, horror creeping through him. _…Oh God, oh GOD, what have I DONE? I'm a murderer, I'm no better than he was!_ Eyes widened in a sudden, terrible recognition. _No…I'm_ worse_ than he was…this is worse than anything Itachi ever did…I'm…oh God, I'm just like him…I'm exactly,_ exactly _like HIM! It's just like he said, he was right--I AM him!_

Choking back the bile that had risen in his throat, the last Uchiha turned and stumbled away from the still-burning remains of the village, his mind caught in a frantic whirl of dismay and self-loathing.

…_That was why, when Tsunade asked him if Itachi was dead, Sasuke grimaced like that,_ Sakura realized in a sudden flash of insight as the memory shimmered into nothingness._ In his pitifully twisted mind, he saw himself as Itachi, as a murderer…and because of that traumatic experience and Itachi's dying words, a part of him really believes that Itachi has "taken over" in his mind in much the same way that Orochimaru did…_

That wasn't true, of course; Sakura would have known if Itachi was somehow possessing Sasuke's mind--she would've been able to feel his chakra the instant her own mind connected with Sasuke's.

_He sees himself as no better than Itachi now. That must destroy him. No wonder he's insane. I have to find a way to change that belief…there must be a way!_ Clenching one ethereal fist in determination, she floated onwards.

* * *

The remaining memories she touched were blurry as well, indistinct in both images and the attached thoughts. Agonizing pains lanced through Sasuke's head every so often, reducing him to a howling mess shuddering on the forest floor, and during the periods of respite, his mind was in a strange, half-conscious state, as if he was wandering about in a dream. Regardless, he was running most of the time, moving at night to avoid chance meetings of any kind, and the sense of irrational fear and endless pursuit pounding through his brain kept him going. His physical wounds were healing—albeit slowly and not at all well due to his constant movement; his emotional and psychological wounds on the other hand were still raw, and showed no signs of healing: Sasuke's battle was with darkness, shadows, and memories now, and he was losing badly.

Then he truly _was_ being pursued, or at least attacked: Sakura couldn't tell by whom most of the time, though she did catch a glimpse of an enemy's headband on two occasions: one bore the symbol of Iwagakure, the other of Kumogakure.

_The Villages of Rock and Cloud. I wonder what they wanted with Sasuke?_

Eyes wide in awe, Sakura watched the brief snatches of violent combat, each punctuated with anger, madness, and increased pain as new injuries were added and old wounds not yet healed were torn open once more.

But always Sasuke was the victor, and no matter how many had assaulted him, no matter how many times he fell senseless to the ground after defeating them all, always he stood again and went on.

Where he was going and why he bothered getting up was unknown; Sakura couldn't read any intension into his movements other than reflex or basic instinct, though she did get an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and blank hopelessness.

She brushed against another memory, and found that this one was at night, in a vaguely familiar-looking clearing…

_This is where we found him!_ she realized, then winced at the memory of pain that had saturated every inch of his body.

Sasuke took a few more stumbling steps forward; each one was agony, and his head spun wildly. He had let one of the Rock shinobi get in too close, and due to his weakness from to blood loss, malnutrition, and past injuries, the other nin had actually managed to grapple with him for a while. It had not ended well for either of them: Sasuke had come out of their tussle with a disjointed hip, some seriously cracked ribs, and another broken arm (the other had been broken a while ago…his memories of the event were too cloudy to remember exactly _when_)—bad, but not as bad as the other man, who hadn't come out of it at all.

The pulse throbbing in his ears was faint and unsteady, his breath came in short, uneven gasps, each one more painful than the last. He closed his eyes to the dizziness and forced himself onward, resolutely placing one foot before the other as he already had for well over a mile now. He was so tired…why couldn't they send someone with some actual _skill_ up against him and just end this all? It was like they were toying with him, taunting him by showing him a means of escape from this dark, painful existence, and then snatching it away…

He didn't even seem to notice the blood spotting the ground behind him--an obvious trail for yet more hunter-nin to follow--but neither did he seem to notice the numerous kunai, shuriken, and senbon protruding from various parts of his body.

Sasuke suddenly came to a wavering, unsteady halt. He could feel himself drifting towards unconsciousness, but he had sensed something ahead: shinobi. They had masked their chakra, but he could still tell that they were there…and they were coming towards him. He doubted they could sense him; his chakra was almost totally depleted, and he was nearly dead as it was.

Regardless of this, he tried to enter a fighting stance. His mind was decidedly unclear, however, and unfortunately activating his Sharingan took up that last tiny bit of chakra he'd had left; an instant later, he found himself face down on the ground, coughing up blood.

_Is this it?_ The thought fluttered wearily through his mind as he stared unseeingly down at the blood-splattered ground. _Is this how the mighty Uchiha clan meets its end? Lying in my own blood, waiting helplessly for death to come?_ The idea seemed so very _wrong_, and yet he found that he had no strength left to alter it.

Slowly his eyes faded to black once more; the other shinobi were getting closer, he could feel it. There were two of them, and he could sense no killing intent, but that didn't necessarily mean anything, though at this point, he was beyond caring. _Please let it be quick… _Gradually his eyes drifted shut, his tattered mind slipping away into some place between awareness and insensibility.

Thus, he did not know how long it had been when he suddenly sensed someone crouching right beside him, someone cautiously turning him over onto his back. He was scarcely breathing now, so far gone that he couldn't even feel any pain any more, much less open his eyes.

"Sakura, get down here." The voice was soft and sounded very distant, like it was half-whispering down a tunnel, though it was also vaguely familiar.

_Sakura._

The name suddenly registered, and a flash of surprise and uncertainty and something else (was this _hope? _he wondered absently) flickered through him. Before he could focus on that fact, however, he was drifting again, closer to unconsciousness and the dark, indistinct shadow that lingered just beyond it. Fraught with curiosity, he allowed himself to move closer to it, then abruptly found that his motion had halted completely; glancing down, he found himself enveloped by gleaming blue-green strands of a very well-known chakra. They wove themselves over and around and through him, pulling him back away from that dangerous edge, and for a moment he struggled against them, trying to break free and lunge towards the brink to hurl himself into the unknown. The strands proved too strong, however, and soon he gave up, allowing them to fill him with their healing energy, feeling as if his body was almost _glowing_ with that pleasant warmth…

Sakura smiled at the odd memory--it must've been his imagination, a delusion brought on by his mental instability, but somehow it was filed away with the rest of his remembrances--and glanced about for more—

Suddenly everything went black.

Cautiously looking about her, Sakura found herself standing alone in darkness; but somehow, even though the darkness seemed to be complete, she could see…then she realized that she herself was glowing with a faintly pulsing light which seemed to be centered in her chest.

Before she could truly ponder this, however, her sensitive ears picked up the soft sound of crying coming from somewhere to her left. Curious, she made her way towards it, though she hadn't gone far when she stopped in her tracks, staring at what she now saw before her in surprise.

There, hunched into a ball of abject misery, was a small boy. He was hugging his knees tightly to his chest, and had his face pressed against his legs, concealing his expression, but his small shoulders shook with his sobs, and the style and hue of his spiky raven-black hair was unmistakable.

Looking at him more closely, she realized that he was almost totally covered in blood: it was splattered over both his clothes and his exposed skin, though she couldn't tell from where she stood if it was his own or someone else's. She noticed at length that he did seem to have some deep-looking wounds on his back and arms, and his clothes were in tatters, as if he'd been caught in a flurry of senbon or shuriken, though she could see no evidence of such weapons anywhere.

For a long moment Sakura just watched him cry, then slowly she drew closer, taking great care make her approach silent; soon she stood directly behind him, and he still hadn't looked up or given any other indication that he was aware of her presence. Smiling warmly, she bent down and laid a gentle hand on his head, smoothing the dark, disheveled locks. Her hand came away smeared with something warm and slightly sticky, but she paid it no mind and continued to stroke his jet-black hair.

The head beneath her hands suddenly twisted out from beneath her touch, and she found herself looking down into the wide, frightened eyes of an eight-year-old Uchiha Sasuke. He cringed back away from her, watching her with trepidation.

_Who are you? How did you get here? Don't hurt me! _ He didn't speak, not aloud anyway, but somehow Sakura could still hear him.

_I won't hurt you. I'm here to help you,_ she replied in the same inexplicably nonverbal manner, reaching out a hand towards him once more.

The boy just stared at it, then raised fearful, disbelieving eyes to hers. _Why? Why would you help me?_

_Because,_ she inched forward until her hand rested on one small shoulder, _I'm your friend._

_I don't…I don't have--I don't_ need _friends,_ the youthful version of Sasuke replied, turning his head and averting his eyes, an unconvincing gruffness forced into the words.

_Yes, you do. And you want them._

_No, I don't. They'll bother me, slow me down._

Sakura smiled slightly and ran her other hand through his dark hair, ignoring the matted blood and subsequent tangles in a rush of almost motherly affection. Her other hand lifted from his shoulder to softly brush against his cheek.

…_You're lonely._

His head jerked back around, the dark eyes that met hers wide with shock.

_You don't have to be lonely_, she went on._ You have friends who care for you, who accept you for who you are, and will love you regardless of what you've done._ She gave him a warm smile. _So please…please let me help you._

The child gazed at her, obviously wavering, then slowly nodded.

_I can't do this all on my own, though,_ Sakura went on, her mind running through the final instructions concerning the _Chisei Chikizuna no Jutsu:_

_**Once contact has been made with the subject's psyche, the 'invading' mind must convince them to combine their chakras: this will supply the user with enough energy to accomplish their purpose inside the subject's mind, as well as enabling them to successfully return to their own body.**_

_**If the user fails to obtain the help of the subject, the jutsu will fail, and if they lack sufficient energy to return to their original body, they will be trapped in the subject's mind indefinitely.**_

Sakura swallowed hard. She was fairly certain that she didn't have enough chakra left to get out on her own; so much was dependant on Sasuke's assistance…

…_Will you help me?_ she asked softly, pleadingly.

With a faint smile, Sasuke nodded again. _Yes._

Dropping to one knee, she pulled him into a gentle embrace, not caring a bit that her face was buried in his blood-matted hair or that his wounds were likely staining her clothes. She smiled and pressed closed lips to the side of his head as she felt his own arms hesitantly wrap around her shoulders, then shut her eyes and concentrated, summoning up all the chakra she could and enveloping them both with the tingling blue flame-like projection of her life energy. The eight-year-old's injuries began to slowly fade away, and Sakura gasped slightly as she felt him opening himself to her, as he released his own chakra to meld and merge with hers. She was awash in the sudden, glorious surge of power that was being channeled into and through her, and it felt so warm and good and _right_ that she had to resist the urge to laugh aloud from sheer joy.

Her eyes snapped open and she loosened her hold on the child a bit, checking him over: there was no sign that he'd ever been injured. Even his clothes seemed to have been mended by that soothing rush of energy.

Slowly the raging blue chakra-flames flickered down to a thin layer that encased them both like a second skin, and the child before her gradually opened his eyes as well. Coal black eyes that gleamed with peace and absolute trust and an unusual warmth met her own…and the most sincere smile that she'd ever seen formed on the lips of that eight-year-old version of Uchiha Sasuke.

_Come on,_ Sakura told him, returning the smile as she rose to her feet once more. _Let's get out of here._

Smile still in place, he nodded a third time before sliding his small hand into hers, his grasp firm and unwavering.

And together, hand in hand, they walked out of that dark place.

* * *

Returning was like breaking through the surface of a pool after being underwater too long; she gasped, eyes flying wide, fighting to draw in deep, shaky lungfuls of air through clenched teeth and a strangely constricted windpipe. The room spun and dipped oddly, but Sakura clung to the edges of the bed and forced her strangely tear-glazed eyes to focus. Finally she succeeded well enough to watch the last traces of the complicated blood seals spread around the room fading away into a misty steam, burned up by the stunningly powerful chakra that had been sizzling through them.

_I'm lucky I got out when I did…I doubt those seals would've held much longer. I'm sure it was the strength of Sasuke's chakra that caused them to evaporate like that, and it was dangerous to use it, I know…but I also know I wouldn't've gotten out without his help._

Exhaustion threatened to overtake her, and her vision tilted wildly once again as she slowly raised her hands, finding that the symbols she'd cut there had been seared closed; the ones on her arms (and Sasuke's arms, too, for that matter) were still oozing, however, as if they'd been cut just seconds before.

_Sasuke…_

She was seated on the bed beside him, just as she had been before she'd attempted the jutsu, though now of course she'd removed her hands from his temples, and found herself leaning over him once more, one shaking, unsteady arm braced on either side of his still form.

_Did…did it work?_ She couldn't tell; she'd had to remove all the medical equipment from the room in order for the jutsu to be performed correctly, so she had no way of knowing if the pattern of his brain waves had changed at all. His face was still relaxed and expressionless, though she thought his complexion looked a little better, a little less ashen.

Her eyes slid from his face down to his arms, and she stared blearily at the beaded blood lining the symbols she'd been required to cut onto him. Even though she knew it was a bad idea, she couldn't resist the urge to erase those blemishes from his smooth, otherwise flawless skin--_she'd_ been the one to put them there after all, they were _her_ fault--and before she knew it, her chakra-enveloped hands were hovering over his arms, and the scarlet kanji had melted back into unsullied ivory without a trace. Fighting back nausea and an intense feeling of weakness, she turned her attention to herself, removing the kanji from her own body as well; after all, it wouldn't do to leave any evidence of what she'd attempted. She wasn't supposed to have that scroll after all…

As the last strokes faded from her skin, Haruno Sakura slumped forward on the narrow hospital bed; consciousness left her so quickly that she only barely registered the fact that the top half of her body was draped across Sasuke's bare chest, her head resting comfortably against his shoulder.

_Too bad,_ a distant part of her mind whispered, _I would've enjoyed being awake for this…_

* * *

"Sakura."

She felt herself slowly drifting back into consciousness, though she was still half-caught in her rather odd dream of floating on her back in a large, warm body of water and staring up at the cloudless blue sky. The water rose and fell gently beneath her, and she felt as if she were asleep on the chest of some giant creature.

…Asleep…on the chest of…

Her eyes snapped open, instantly meeting a very familiar pair of deep black ones, and she angled a shy smile up at him as she realized that she was still sprawled across Sasuke's chest, where she'd passed out from using up too much of her chakra…

"Sakura."

Her heart gave a funny sort of squeeze as he spoke her name--_no, I'm over him,_ she reminded herself, shaking her head a bit--but to her chagrin, she found herself blushing as she looked up into his beautiful face. She never thought she'd be so happy to see that slight frown in her life; she'd always hated it when he frowned at her before, but none of that mattered now. He was alive! He was awake! And for the first time since they'd brought him here almost three months ago, he finally looked fully lucid. Her smile stretched wider as she stared up him, eyes shining. She'd done it! She'd brought him out of whatever madness he'd descended into, and now he was—

"Sakura…"

"Y-yes? What is it, Sasuke-kun?"

"…Get off me."

He was exactly like he'd been before.


	9. Which Gets Some Things Settled

Three days after Sakura had secretly performed the Chisei Chikizuna no Jutsu, Sasuke was discharged from the Konoha Hospital. While this should have been a good thing since it meant that he was physically sound once again, it wasn't exactly advantageous for Sasuke himself, since it meant that he was healthy enough to be thrown into one of Konoha's maximum security holding cells and placed under ANBU supervision, to be held until the date set for his trial.

Sakura herself had ended up stuck in the hospital for most of those three days; the jutsu had been surprisingly draining, and Shizune, who had found the young medic-nin slumped against a wall in the middle of an empty hallway, had taken one look at her ghostly pale face before rushing her off to a room of her own. Despite the pink-haired girl's protests that she was fine, Tsunade had checked her over personally, then ordered her to stay in bed for a minimum of three days. Sakura, who was far too exhausted to put up much of a fight, had meekly complied, though she hadn't liked the knowing glint in her shishou's amber eyes; regardless of the lengths to which she'd gone to keep her use of the forbidden jutsu hidden, Sakura suspected (correctly) that the Hokage knew exactly what she'd done...and she had all the evidence she needed in the recently awakened Uchiha Sasuke.

But to Sakura's surprise and infinite gratitude, the busty blonde gave no indication that her apprentice's condition was anything other than normal, scribbling down 'chakra depletion due to overworking, lack of sleep, and a slight case of malnutrition' as the cause of the girl's collapse (though as she left, Tsunade had shot Sakura a look that clearly said that they _would_ be discussing this matter at a later time, much to Sakura's discomfort).

While Tsunade might have known the true cause of her collapse, Naruto certainly didn't. He had been nearly hysterical on hearing that she was in the hospital, practically breaking down the door to her room in his desperation to assure himself that she was alright.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay, Sakura-chan? I told you that you were working too hard…" He hovered close to her bed, looking down at her anxiously and glancing to the right or left every few moments, as if searching for some way to "help" his old teammate.

Sakura rolled her eyes a bit at this and waved him off with a laugh. "I've told you four times already, Naruto, I'm alright! I just wasn't taking care of myself the way I should have been…"

"But you were fine the other night when we broke into—"

Eyes wide, the pink-haired girl quickly clapped a hand over the blonde's mouth. "Never mind that," she said with a warning glare. "And I told you, I'm fine now, too."

"Oh yeah! I almost forgot!" Naruto burst out excitedly as she removed her hand. "Guess who else is fine? _More _than fine, actually!"

Though she had a pretty good idea as to who it might be, Sakura played along, cocking her head and displaying an innocently curious look that would have fooled her own mother.

"It's Sasuke!" the Kyuubi container exclaimed, just as she'd expected, though her heart gave a curious leap at his name. "He's awake!"

"He's what?" Sakura (still acting, of course) gasped, sitting fully upright with a jerk and struggling to free herself of the blankets.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, catching her firmly but gently by the shoulders. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To see Sasuke, of course!"

"Nuh-uh, no way!" The blonde pushed her back down on the bed, tucking the covers so tightly around her that there was little room for movement. "I promised Tsunade-baa-chan that I'd keep you in bed—that was the only way I could get her to let me to tell you about the teme! She wouldn't've let me tell you if I didn't promise…and you know how I am about promises, Sakura-chan."

After studying his resolute face for a long moment, the medic-nin let out a slow, hissing sigh from between clenched teeth and determinedly made herself more comfortable in the bed.

She was going to be there a while.

* * *

Since she had nothing better to do, Sakura spent most of the three days sleeping; she really _was_ tired, and since Tsunade wouldn't even allow her to work on paperwork, she figured she might as well.

When she wasn't sleeping, she had a constant stream of visitors, for which she was thankful--she thought she might've died of boredom otherwise, since all she had to occupy her excess of time was staring at the ceiling mindlessly and wondering how Sasuke was doing.

Naruto was there almost constantly (apparently he was dividing his time between Sakura and Sasuke's rooms, though Sakura seemed to be getting most of his attention, a fact which she suspected the last Uchiha was secretly--or perhaps not-so-secretly, judging by the new and suspiciously fist-sized bruise on Naruto's jaw--quite thankful for), and Ino was there nearly as often, which served as a source of both amusement and annoyance for Sakura: both of her blonde best friends talked so loudly and so much, it oftentimes seemed almost like a contest to see which of them could most effectively drown the other out. The resulting level of noise was truly awe-inspiring and had gotten both of them kicked out of her room on more than one occasion already.

Hinata had come with Naruto on one of his many visits on the first day, and thus Sakura had been only slightly surprised to find Neji sitting beside her bed when she woke up after an especially lengthy nap during her second day in the hospital.

"So the fair princess has finally awakened, and even without a kiss from her prince charming," he deadpanned, smirking when his sardonic tone drew a faint groan of annoyance from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Shut up, Hyuuga," she growled, easing herself up into a sitting position. "How long…?" she mumbled, running a hand through her sleep-tousled hair and feeling a strong sense of déjà vu.

Neji's smirk deepened—apparently he remembered their past conversation like this one as well. "Not that long," he said as Sakura rubbed the sleep sand from her eyes and ruefully wondered why she could never seem to look nice in front of the Hyuuga prodigy. If she didn't know any better, she'd think he was doing this to her on purpose.

"You should take better care of yourself, Haruno," he went on, his voice suddenly and surprisingly devoid of sarcasm. "We wouldn't want to lose you, after all. You're far too…valuable."

Sakura's eyes went wide, and she felt the blood rushing to her cheeks--not because of the unexpected compliment, but instead at the softer tone in which it had been given. She glanced away quickly only to find her eyes drawn to a vase full of pale pink roses on her bedside table. _Those weren't there earlier,_ she realized with a thoughtful frown. _Light pink roses…those stand for sympathy…and admiration. Did…does Neji…?_ She shifted her gaze back to the Hyuuga, her expression inquisitive.

An ambiguous smile was his only response to her unspoken question. "Get some rest," he said quietly, rising fluidly from his chair and pausing to look down at her for a moment, his expression flat, closed, and unreadable. "As much as I'd like to stay, I suppose I really should leave…" he said at last, a hint of his typically arrogant smirk returning to his handsome face. "After all, the nurse _did_ say that too much excitement wouldn't be good for you."

Crossing the room, he slid the door open to reveal a rather startled-looking Ino, a bouquet of daisies nestled in the crook of her arm, one hand raised, obviously in the middle of reaching out for the door handle. Neji, on the other hand, appeared utterly unfazed by her presence, as if he'd known she was there all along (and considering the impressive abilities of his bloodline trait, he probably had).

"Yamanaka," he said evenly, inclining his head to her courteously before stepping to one side to allow the blonde kunoichi through. He paused in the doorway and glanced back at Sakura, whose bemused gaze was still fixed on him, an expression of honest confusion and curiosity apparent on her face; his smirk briefly stretched into a faint but real smile, then he turned and disappeared out the door, closing it gently behind him.

Ino watched him go, her surprise clearly expressed by her raised eyebrows and atypical silence. The latter, of course, didn't last long however.

"What was Neji-senpai doing here?" she asked after she was certain that he was gone, blue eyes lingering on the fresh, pale pink roses in the vase beside Sakura's bed before settling on her friend's slightly flushed face.

After nearly half a minute with no response—

"Sakura!"

"Huh? What?" The pink-haired medic blinked and shook herself, feeling rather flustered.

"I asked why Neji-senpai was here," the blonde repeated impatiently.

"Oh…uh, he was checking on me for Hinata-chan," Sakura said, thinking quickly. Although she wasn't entirely certain as to why Neji had been there herself, she definitely had her suspicions, and though she knew better than to admit them to Ino--it would be all over town before she could blink if she did--she did have to tell the other kunoichi _something,_ or she'd never hear the end of it. "Hinata-chan was here yesterday, and apparently she was wondering how I was doing today, but since she was busy, she asked Neji-san to come check up on me."

Ino's skeptical expression indicated that she wasn't entirely convinced, but she accepted the explanation regardless, and soon the two young women were chattering away like always.

Ino had just finished rubbing it in Sakura's face that she had been to see the newly awakened Sasuke _twice_ already when she suddenly stood. "I have to go—I'm supposed to meet Shikamaru and Chouji for some training at three, and then dinner afterward. _Ugh,_ it'll probably be Korean barbecue again. You know how Chouji loves the stuff, and either Shika or I will probably end up paying." She stretched, showing off even more of her well-toned midriff, then flashed Sakura a grin. "Hurry up and get rested, Forehead. I'll steal Sasuke-kun away from you for sure if you're just lying around all day and getting fat."

Sakura snorted, smiling lopsidedly up at her childhood best friend. "Yeah right, pig. You'll be a lot fatter than me if you're always eating Korean barbecue with Chouji."

Ino giggled all the way to the door, turning back long enough to stick her tongue out and pull down her lower eyelid with a quiet "Nyah!" before slipping out the door with one final wave.

Sakura was surprised to find herself staring at the closed door wistfully, and was even more surprised to realize that she was actually sort of jealous of Ino. It wasn't that she didn't like her own team--far from it, in fact--but a part of her had always wished that things could have been more simple. Even though she had originally "won" by being put on the same team as Sasuke, Ino had always had it easier in terms of finding her place on her team and getting along with her teammates. True, Team Ten wasn't nearly as powerful as Team Seven in terms of brute strength, but at least they'd managed to get along and work together reasonably well, and at least Ino hadn't been ignored or patronized by everyone on her team.

_And at least they managed to stay together,_ Sakura mused, fingering the thin, silky petals of one of the daisies Ino had brought her. They had looked childish and somehow out of place beside the stately pink roses, so Sakura had set them on the chair on the other side of her bed for now. _And,_ she thought as she pulled one of the flowers from the vase and spun the stem between her fingers, _her__ teammates didn't always leave her behind…literally or figuratively. They were always working together, having fun, and we…_

She shook her head silently, though her eyes never left the flower in her hand. Sasuke and Naruto had both left Konoha, leaving her to pass the Chuunin exams on her own. She'd ended up being paired with Ino and Chouji, and while it had been nice to have another female on the team for a change, she had still missed watching Sasuke's fluidly graceful style of fighting, as well as yelling at Naruto for whatever stupid stunt he was attempting to pull at the moment.

She was still staring blankly at the daisy when the door to her room rattled open again, and the brooding silence was effectively shattered by Naruto's bright (and of course obnoxiously loud) greeting. "Sakura-chan!" he gushed and flung himself at her bed, engulfing her in a semi-smothering embrace just as he had twice already that day. "How are you feeling?"

"Just was well as I was when you came to check on me a few hours ago," she said after prying his arms from around her throat and pushing him back a safe distance. "Don't you have, um, missions to do or something?"

"Nope!" the energetic blonde chirped with a wide grin as he dropped into the chair beside the bed (Sakura just barely managed to snatch Ino's daisies out of the way before the Kyuubi container smashed them flat). "Tsunade-baa-chan has been too preoccupied with all the paper shuffling and red tape related to Sasuke-teme's return and sentencing and all that to specifically give me any missions, and I didn't want any anyway—I want to be here with you and the teme, now that we can all be together again for real!"

Sakura managed a small smile at Naruto's optimistic tone, but she had known him long enough to be able to tell that really he was just as worried about Sasuke's upcoming trial as she was. He wasn't naïve enough, or stupid enough, to think that their old teammate would get off easily, even if he _had_ taken out Orochimaru and the last living member of the Akatsuki, as Sakura had told Naruto the day before.

There were few times that she had seen the blonde look so relieved as when she had explained to him what had really happened in the Sound Country, and though he had initially demanded quite sternly to know how she'd gotten that sort of information, he did not press the issue when she turned her eyes to her folded hands and mumbled something about 'Sasuke-kun telling her, sort of.' Though he had regarded her with careful eyes, he had not questioned her any further, apparently accepting her words on faith: he didn't know how she knew, but he knew her well enough to know when she was honestly telling the truth.

"Ah!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed as his eyes settled on the roses on her bedside table. "So you _did_ get them!" Seeing her puzzled look, he explained, "Hinata-chan wanted me to make sure that you got those roses, and I promised her that I'd check. She'll be happy to know that you did get 'em, though I'm not sure why she thought you might not. The Yamanaka family's really good about that sorta stuff."

_Hinata wanted him to check…? _Sakura thought, casting a suddenly uncertain glance towards the beautiful pink buds. _So maybe they weren't from Neji after all,_ she thought with an odd pang of something that felt suspiciously like disappointment.

Oblivious to his pink-haired teammate's contemplations, the blonde continued to babble on about Sasuke, his last date with Hinata, Sasuke, the mission he'd been on last week, a funny prank he'd pulled on Sai two days before, Sasuke, the ramen he'd had for lunch, and Sasuke. (Naruto was apparently even more excited about the Uchiha's recovery than Sakura herself, if his level of enthusiasm while discussing anything to do with the other man was any judge; but then again, Naruto was fairly enthusiastic about most things.) He soon had Sakura in good spirits once more, the daisies and her old team situation forgotten almost entirely; before long though, Naruto had to rush off to meet Hinata at Ichiraku, and Sakura was left alone with her thoughts once again.

…That is, until Tsunade came in to ask her apprentice some _very_ important questions about a certain scroll she'd found hidden in the bottom of one of Sakura's desk drawers.

* * *

Predictably, it was Naruto who informed Sakura the next day that Uchiha Sasuke was to be discharged that very afternoon, and that he was to be placed in solitary confinement in a maximum security cell until his trial. This hadn't surprised Sakura in the least--she'd expected it in fact--but it did give her cause to get herself discharged; she had to see him before he was moved, or she might very well not see him at all.

But, as always, she found that she was just a little too late; by the time she'd gotten through the release forms, and healed one patient's broken wrist and the fierce-looking shuriken wound on another's abdomen (she knew that she really shouldn't've been working so soon after being discharged, but she was there and her chakra levels were higher than they had been in months, so she had figured she might as well), Sasuke had already been moved.

However, she refused to let that stop her: she was the Hokage's apprentice after all, and the second-best medic in Konoha, and even prisoners being kept in solitary had to have check-ups _sometimes,_ especially ones that had been so recently released from the hospital. It had taken her less than fifteen minutes to convince Tsunade-shishou to give her regular access to his cell, so she visited him pretty regularly, always claiming some sort of medical business as her reason for calling, though most of the time she really just wanted an excuse to see him.

His cell was small and very dark, having no windows and only a single dim light buzzing faintly overhead and flickering every few minutes, sporadically leaving the room in total darkness for long periods of time. Sasuke himself was bound with chains around his ankles and wrists, and his chakra was drained twice a day, which of course left him looking tired and even more pale than usual.

After seeing him for herself, Sakura had to admit that her scheme, reckless though it might have been, had worked. It had worked remarkably well, in fact, even if it _had_ left her unconscious due to intensive chakra drain, which seemed to be becoming a regular occurrence when it came to dealing with this patient. Sasuke was perfectly lucid and surprisingly submissive (though that probably had a lot to do with his chakra levels being kept so low), and, the pink-haired medic found to her dismay, just as uncommunicative towards her as before.

It wasn't that she'd thought they'd have some kind of deep, spiritual or even mental connection after she saved him; that only happened in movies and books, and she was far too practical to hope for anything of the sort. But though she hadn't honestly been expecting any sort of link to form between them, she _had_ expected him to be just a little bit friendlier towards her, if for no other reason than the simple fact that she had risked so much to save his life. But as far as she could tell, nothing had changed between them at all: he was still the same silent, reserved Uchiha Sasuke that he had always been, though he did seem a bit more at ease with himself somehow. He was less angry, though he was still distant and reticent, concealing his passionate, volatile nature beneath a smooth surface of imperturbability.

The most noticeable difference was that he was more formally polite, actually adding honorifics onto people's names…sometimes, in any case. Though Kakashi had become "Kakashi-sensei" and Tsunade was "Hokage-sama," Sakura found that she herself was still plain "Sakura," and of course Naruto was still just "dobe."

But of course, she hadn't really expected anything else, and it was comforting to know that some things would never change, no matter how many years went by.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke sat with his back to the wall in Holding Cell #302, staring sightlessly down at the book laying open on his lap, lost in thought. There wasn't much to do in solitary, and for some reason the guards had been kind enough to allow him to keep the books that Sakura had brought him (after they had literally gone through them page by page to be sure that they didn't contain anything dangerous or potentially useful in any escape attempts of course). He had almost instantly recognized the books as some of the very ones he'd had in his old apartment, and he wondered without really wondering why Sakura had had them in her possession.

The dim light overhead guttered out for the third time in as many hours, and Sasuke, unable to read now even if he had decided it was worthwhile to focus on the book in his hand, closed his eyes to the absolute darkness and tipped his head back to rest it against the cell wall, allowing his mind to wander.

It still felt rather odd, thinking so clearly, and seeing and remembering things with the exceptionally high level of clarity that he'd been so accustomed to in the past was almost painful now. It was something like a sensory overload, having everything work and feel the way it was supposed to, and actually noticing his environment. He was intimately aware of his surroundings--of the cool stone that made up the cell walls and floor, of the stale taste of the air and the musty particles that drifted through the sickly yellow beam falling from the sputtering light overhead, of the quiet and almost musical clink of the chains attached to the metal rings that chafed his wrists and ankles.

He was himself once again, something that he'd never really been thankful of before, but now after all he had been through, it was something of a relief.

And if what he'd been told was the truth, then it was all thanks to _her_.

His thoughts settled almost reluctantly on a particular memory, which he then brought up for careful re-examination: the first time he'd been visited by the Hokage, nearly two weeks ago.

* * *

He had been in much the same position as he was now: seated on the floor, back to the wall, newly-fastened chains clamped securely about his wrists and ankles. The Godaime had stared at him hard, fists posted on her voluptuous hips as she gazed down at him through fiercely narrowed golden eyes. "So Uchiha. Rumor has it that you're finally in your right mind again," she had said at last. His only reply had been a soft snort, but that was just as well since the Hokage had continued almost without a pause, "Well, you _should_ be, after the stunt Sakura pulled to save your ass."

Sasuke had blinked up at her impassively, seemingly uninterested.

"Take a look at this when you have the time. Which would be now, seeing as you're not going anywhere any time soon." Offhandedly she tossed an unusually slender scroll at him, which he had made no attempt to catch, and it bounced off the wall a bare inch from his head and fell to the rough stone floor with a dull clatter; the Uchiha did not flinch in the slightest, either at the noise or the scroll's near-miss, though the slim cylinder had passed close enough (and had been thrown hard enough) to send a slight breeze ruffling through his dark locks.

Tsunade had met his flat stare with a long, carefully evaluating look before huffing out a sigh full of impatience and dissatisfaction. "Well, apparently you don't care, but I'll tell you anyway," she had nearly growled as he closed his eyes and bowed his head slightly. "Totally disregarding the potential price for her actions, Sakura performed this jutsu, and somehow managed to restore your severely damaged mind, bringing you out of whatever strange psychosis you had fallen into, as well as a self-induced coma. And through some miracle or force of luck, she came out of it nearly unscathed."

Sasuke hadn't even looked up at her words, though he could feel her eyes on him.

"From what I understand, the jutsu can essentially heal, or at least alleviate some of the pain resulting from emotional wounds," the Fifth had gone on in a much more subdued tone, "Ostensibly even wounds that have been there for a considerable amount of time." She crossed her arms over her ample chest, a hint of the previous sharpness returning to her voice. "I'm not saying that you won't still have problems because of your past, but someone who internalizes everything as much as you do _can't_ be entirely oblivious to this drastic of a change. You must have noticed that you're feeling a lot better 'inside' than you have in a very long time."

In truth he _had_ noticed--he'd noticed almost the very instant he woke up to find an unconscious Sakura sprawled on top of him--and the realization had startled him, though nothing of his outward appearance had given any indication of that: and now his eyes remained closed, his head bowed, his arms limply at his sides, and he remained silent.

"Well, since you've been so helpful, I guess that concludes our audience for now," the Godaime had said, her tone blatantly sarcastic, but as she had turned to go, she had paused to glare down at him once again. "I know you haven't had the easiest life, and I'm certain that you're well aware that your troubles are far from over, but keep in mind that you have a _hell _of a lot to be thankful for, Uchiha…and first and foremost is that you have talented, powerful, intelligent friends that still care about you enough to die for you, regardless of how much of an asshole you've been to them."

Taking in Sasuke's blank, unmoved expression, Tsunade shook her head and snorted, "I have no idea what she sees in you, but she must have seen something that would give her a reason to risk her life like that. I hope you can prove to me--to all of us, really--that you were worth it."

After giving him one last scrutinizing glance, she had left, looking tired and fairly disgruntled.

Once he had been absolutely certain she was gone, he had casually, almost carelessly picked up the scroll, more out of idle curiosity than anything else, but on reading it, he had been more than a little surprised in spite of himself. The Hokage hadn't been joking when she'd said the jutsu was dangerous, and it was remarkably complex as well.

He had continued to read, and, as much as he hated the idea, it hadn't taken long at all for Sasuke to recognize that he owed one Haruno Sakura a very, very large debt.

* * *

Now, as the overhead light flickered back on, he allowed himself to really consider that debt, and Sakura herself as well.

She was very much the same as she had been ten years ago, in that she seemed to use every possible excuse as a chance to visit him. Her touch was gentle and tended to linger just a fraction of a second longer than necessary, her gaze sometimes held a curious softness when he happened to catch her eye, and she still insisted on referring to him as "Sasuke-kun."

But she was very different as well. She was noticeably more self-confident and outspoken, no longer merely an awkward, uncertain girl who was more interested in boys than her profession: from what he could tell, she was significantly stronger (though in his opinion, she couldn't very well have gotten much weaker). She _had_ to have gotten stronger to successfully perform a jutsu like the one on the scroll Tsunade had given him--a hell of a lot stronger.

…She had let her hair grow out again, too…

The door to his cell squeaked open, and when he gave the intruder his usual desultory glance, he was somehow not at all surprised to find that it was the very person he'd been thinking about.

She had another armload of books along with her medical charts, a fact for which he was secretly quite grateful; he'd finished all but the one currently in his hands, and he was halfway through that one as well, but he kept his expression carefully neutral as she placed the new books beside the others before going about the routine check-up.

"I still can't believe you've finished all those books! I'll have to bring you more next time, too. Well, everything checks out, just like usual Sasuke-kun…although I wish they wouldn't keep your chakra levels quite so low. If they keep this up, your muscles will start degenerating, and the lack of regular exercise doesn't help...ah, but I'm sure you'll be out of here before that happens…" She fell silent when he didn't respond (not that she'd really expected him to), choosing instead to focus on filling out his chart.

"I didn't want to come back, you know."

The words were quiet and dull, and Sasuke did not raise his eyes from his limp hands as he spoke them.

The regular, methodical scratching of Sakura's pen stilled, and surprisingly unreadable green eyes flicked up to study his face, her lips compressed into a thin line. "I know," she said in a low voice, her eyes dropping back to the clipboard before her as she went back to her writing.

"Why," he muttered after another long silence had stretched between them.

"Why what?" she replied simply, her voice soft but clear.

"Why…did you save me."

She blinked, not quite concealing the brief flash of surprise that flickered over her face, then gave a little snort. "I'm a medic-nin. It's my job to save people."

"At any cost?" Slowly he reached behind him and pulled out the scroll Tsunade had given him; Sakura's eyes widened a bit, though she gave no other sign that she recognized the scroll.

"Yes." She drew herself up, hugging her clipboard more closely to her chest, and met his piercing gaze coolly. "For some people, yes, at any cost."

"And why me," he asked, though there wasn't much of either question or concern in that phrase--just flat, barely half-interested curiosity.

"Because of our bond," she said simply, in that same infuriatingly calm voice.

His eyes narrowed just slightly, his expression clearly saying _what bond?_

"We're still friends, aren't we?" she said with a trace of a smile, and he blinked, his glare fading back into his usual apathetic expression. "You and Naruto and I…we're all still friends. And to me, that means that without a second thought, I would die for you--either of you, both of you." Her green eyes took on a strange expression that he couldn't quite place, but he could feel the sudden tension it caused in his chest and shoulders. "…I _know_ you've found that some bonds are impossible to break, no matter how much you want to…so you should be able to understand this, at least a little."

Something about the way she said those two words—_I know_—frightened him for some reason; and Uchiha Sasuke did not respond well to being frightened.

He scowled darkly, but before he could lash out at her verbally, she suddenly smiled brightly--too brightly for the expression to be honest--and practically bubbled, "And, well, I like do what I can for everyone!"

Quickly scooping up the books he'd finished, she flashed him one last dazzling smile before heading for the door, calling back the inevitable, "I promise I'll come see you again soon, Sasuke-kun!" over her shoulder as she went.

Sasuke stared at the closed door through narrowed eyes long after the echo of her footsteps had died away into the surrounding gloom, leaving him to contemplate the complexity of bonds, as well as her unnerving knowledge of his past, in silence.

_ She "knows"? She couldn't possibly know…unless… _His eyes dropped to the scroll he still held in his hand, and his eyes narrowed even more.

_Damn. _He didn't like this at all.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei!"

The silver-haired jounin didn't pause in his slouching stride, nor did he look up from the book his nose was firmly buried in. "Yo," he said calmly, raising a hand at the pink-haired girl without even giving her the barest glance, as if it hadn't been over a month since they'd last seen each other.

"Kakashi-sensei, wait!"

Obediently he slowed his pace, though his single visible eye never left the apparently quite captivating pages of the book in front of him. "What is it, Sakura-chan? Is something wrong?"

"I don't think so," the slightly breathless medic-nin said as she fell into step beside him. "I just saw you from down the street, and I'd been meaning to ask you if you've been to see Sasuke-kun yet."

"It's funny that you would mention that. You see, I was actually on my way to do just that when—"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Kakashi-sensei, don't take this wrong, but…shove it. Your excuses are never anywhere _near_ believable."

"—When I was summoned by the Hokage and sent away on a month-long mission. To Suna."

Sakura blinked. "Wow, I… stand corrected. That was actually quite believable."

That drew a half-skeptical snort from the older jounin. "It had better be. It's the truth."

"The part about you being sent away for a month, maybe," she said, giving him a withering look. "But I doubt you were on your way to visit Sasuke-kun when Tsunade-shishou called for you."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because I know _you._ You were probably either reading or sleeping."

Kakashi let out a chuckle, but made no other reply, and they walked on in silence for a few hundred yards, Sakura idly wondering how he kept from running into things with his face caught in his book like that; even if he did happen to have exceptional peripheral vision, surely his depth perception must have been hindered by his only being able to use one eye. But maybe after so many years of living with it he was just used to it.

She marveled as he effortlessly sidestepped two puddles, a pothole, a half of a dropped pork bun, and someone's wandering toddler; then she bit her lip, reaching out to grasp his sleeve and pull him to an unwilling stop, looking up at him with solemn green eyes. "You haven't been to see him once, sensei…why is that?"

The tall man beside her sighed quietly. "You know, that's the nicest thing about getting lost on the Road of Life…no one stops you to ask you questions." He shrugged, effectively pulling his arm from her grasp, and continued on his way.

…And he still hadn't looked up from that blasted book _once._

Sakura wasn't going to let him get away that easily, however. "Kakashi-sensei!" she shouted, running after him. This time he did not slow his walk, and she almost had to trot to keep up with his longer stride. "Kakashi-sensei…I'm serious."

"I know. So was I."

She suddenly placed herself in front of him, forcing him to stop once again. "The only time you've seen Sasuke was the time you ran into us on the street, and that was when he wasn't in his right mind--he probably didn't even know who you were. And you never visited him at the hospital either."

"I've been busy, Sakura-chan," he said calmly, raising hand to absently scratch his jaw. "I told you, I was away on that mission to Suna. I only just got back yesterday."

She stared at him hard as he nonchalantly turned a page in his book. "Kakashi-sensei. You said that your mission lasted a month."

"That's right," he said lightly, trying to step around her.

Her eyes narrowed as she moved to intercept him, blocking his way. "Sasuke-kun has been back for _three_ months now."

Kakashi blinked slowly, then turned a forlorn look up at the sky. "Um, did I mention that my mission was actually four months long if you count all the prep-work?"

The pink-haired girl snorted and shook her head. "You really are a terrible liar. We ran into you that one time, remember? And I gave you a check-up a little more than a month ago, before you left on that mission to Suna. I've seen you around, sensei."

Kakashi was silent for a long moment, his eye focused somewhere off to her right. "I'd only have been in the way, Sakura-chan," he said quietly. "There was nothing I could do to help, both you and I know that—"

"Just _being_ there for him might have helped!"

"You and Naruto were both 'there for him,' and it didn't make a bit of difference, did it? Not until _you _decided that you wanted to help him at any cost."

Green eyes flew wide at that, and she looked at him askance. _How did he know?_

"It still might have helped somehow," she muttered, glancing away quickly.

His book closed with a firm _snap_, and Kakashi released a long, quiet breath. "Sakura…" For the first time since this conversation had started, he looked directly at her, and the expression in his single eye was surprisingly soft and remorseful. "Sometimes it's hard to confront things that we see as failures...particularly when we see that failure, at least partially, as our own fault."

She blinked at this, then forced herself to laugh. "That's silly, Kakashi-sensei...you were a great teacher. It was Sasuke-kun's choice to leave. You tried to talk him out of it…and you nearly succeeded. Well, you did better than I did, anyway," she said with a sheepish smile, and the silver-haired man's eye narrowed almost imperceptibly at her words. "You know better than to blame yourself for something like that."

Kakashi's eyebrow inched upwards, and Sakura suddenly found his gaze uncomfortably intense. _"You_ blamed yourself for not being able to stop him, didn't you? Why are you the only one who's allowed to feel responsible for something that isn't really their fault?"

Sakura bowed her head, and a fragment of a mirthless chuckle escaped her. "I was a child then, and I came to terms with that guilt." She didn't say that _he_ was an adult both then and now and was old enough to have known better, but the accusation hung between them nonetheless.

"Sorry," she muttered after a moment, but Kakashi waved away her apology.

"Don't be. You're just being honest."

_"Hey, Sakura!"_

Both looked up to see Ino waving at Sakura from the other end of the street. "You're supposed to meet me for lunch, did you forget? C'mon, we can both get fat together!"

Sakura turned back to her old sensei and smiled faintly. "I have to go. We should all get together for dinner sometime…once Sasuke-kun is released, I mean. We could go to Ichiraku, just like we used to." Kakashi noticed that she didn't sound all that confident that that would ever happen, and truth be told he wasn't any more certain than she was, but he nodded reassuringly nonetheless.

"Alright. I'll see you, Sakura-chan."

" 'Bye, Kakashi-sensei." And with a small wave, she turned and headed for the waiting (and obviously impatient) blonde.

Kakashi sighed again as he watched her go, then shrugged, opening his book again and sloping off down the street. He hadn't told her that he'd be seeing Sasuke tomorrow regardless of whether he wanted to or not—Tsunade had ordered him to be present for the trial, which had been scheduled for late tomorrow evening.

Ah well. It didn't really matter, and she'd find out soon enough.

* * *

Exactly two weeks to the day that he'd been pronounced healthy and released from the hospital, Uchiha Sasuke was called before the Hokage and the Council of Village Elders to stand trial. The temporary amnesty he'd been granted due to his mental instability had officially expired that day, and a new sentence had to be given.

It was the talk of Konoha. Everyone in the village knew that today the fate of the last of the once-proud Uchiha clan would be decided, and more than a few betting pools had started over the issue (and judging by those, most people thought that he would either be sentenced to a lifetime imprisonment or else he would be executed as a traitor and mass-murderer, regardless of the circumstances). A betting pool had also been started on "the Kyuubi boy's" reaction to the outcome, and although he had gained the faith of the general public years ago in the battle against the Akatsuki (a rumor had been circulating that he was to be named the Sixth Hokage before the year was out), a lot of people still didn't seem to know what to expect. Most of them thought he'd simply end up doing nothing--he wasn't Hokage yet, after all, and thus had little political power--though a handful of the more cynical villagers bought into the long odds of him flying into a rage and destroying at least half of Konoha, with even money being placed on both the Kyuubi container and the last Uchiha either escaping or ending up in prison together at least temporarily.

The trial was to be very private—only the Hokage, the Council of Elders, Uchiha Sasuke, and a handful of others would be allowed, among them the ever-present ANBU escort.

* * *

The morning of the day the trial was to be held, Tsunade summoned Naruto to her office to discuss the situation with him. "Uchiha Sasuke will be allowed to select two advocates to stand with him at the trial," she said, resting her elbows on the desk and folding her hands in front of her.

Naruto let out a single huff of quiet laughter and grinned. "That's easy, the teme would pick Sakura-chan and me."

The Hokage's gaze sharpened a bit. "I know that nothing I can say or do will keep you out of that room, Naruto, but…I won't allow Sakura to be there. Instead, I would suggest Kakashi for the position. I've already discussed the matter with him, and he's agreed—"

"What!" Naruto half-shouted, disbelief readily apparent on his face. "Why can't Sakura-chan come? She's the one who's done the most for him!"

"You have no idea how right you are, Naruto, but that is exactly the reason I am preventing her from being there."

Something in her tone caused the blonde's indignation to subside, and he frowned at her. "What do you mean, Baa-chan?"

The Godaime leaned forward a bit more, resting her chin on her folded hands, her eyes intense. "In the quite likely event that the Council should prove to be…unreasonable…the outcome of this trial might be difficult for Sakura to accept." Naruto lowered his gaze, though his jaw clenched determinedly. "I think it would be best to spare her that sort of pain, don't you?" Tsunade continued quietly. "Hearing about it will be hard enough…but being there, and not being able to do anything about it—"

"I get it," Naruto snapped, turning his head sharply to the side to glare at the wall. His shoulders slumped a bit, and he closed his eyes, though his teeth were gritted in helpless anger. "You're right…Sakura-chan shouldn't be there."_ But that doesn't mean I'm going to let them do anything to Sasuke._

"Alright," the Godaime said, leaning back in her chair. "Now, I suggest you go and find Kakashi before you tell Sakura about this. I have a feeling that you'll need some backup, and regardless of how lazy your old sensei is, you'll probably need all the help you can get."

_

* * *

"WHAT?"_

"Ano, Sakura-chan…I'm sorry, but that's what Tsunade-baa-chan told me!" Naruto said, desperately trying to calm his old teammate.

"Why not?" the pink-haired young woman whirled on her old sensei, eyes flashing. "Why am _I_ not allowed to be there for the trial? _Naruto_ gets to go!"

"It isn't seemly for a woman to sit with the Council, Sakura-chan..." Kakashi replied somewhat sheepishly. He and Naruto had decided that it was best not to tell her the real reason she wasn't being permitted to watch the trial--it would just make her worry even more--but they had obviously forgotten what a wretched liar the Copy Ninja was: Sakura saw through his lie in an instant.

"That's BULL! One of the Council members IS a woman! And what about Tsunade-shishou? _She's_ a woman!" Sakura posted her hands on her hips and gave him a withering look. "What's the _real_ reason, Kakashi?"

The silver-haired man heaved a sigh. It seemed there was no getting around it, so he might as well tell her the truth…half of it, at least. "Well, Naruto is allowed because he's taking legal responsibility for our old friend for now--and besides, if Sasuke _did_ try something, Naruto's pretty much the only one around who could do anything about it."

"Yeah," Sakura muttered under her breath, "so when _that_ fight breaks out, they can work together to destroy the Hokage Tower. They'll have it down in no time flat."

"Ahem," Kakashi coughed pointedly before continuing his explanation, "And since you _have _been spending the most time with Sasuke in recent months….well, judging from that, as well as previous instances where you intervened on his behalf, your position on the matter could in no way be considered objective."

"And I suppose _Naruto's _will be?"

"We'll make sure nothing happens to Sasuke, Sakura-chan," Naruto said firmly, laying a hand on her shoulder, and Sakura stared up at him for a long while, wondering at the mixture of determination and compassion there in his eyes.

Finally she looked away, crossing her arms over her chest. "Hmmph. You'd better."

* * *

That evening found Uchiha Sasuke standing before the Council of Village Elders, Naruto slightly behind him and to his left, Kakashi on the right, listening to Tsunade read a written testimony from one Haruno Sakura concerning his possession by Orochimaru.

"…In summary, since the defendant was not in control of his body at the time, Haruno proposes that the guilt for the slaughter be placed where it belongs—on Orochimaru."

"How do we know that this testimony is accurate?" queried a particularly wizened old man who must have been in his late eighties at the very least. "For all we know, the memories she saw were false or altered somehow—"

"I can vouch for the testimony's legitimacy, Homura-san," the Godaime interjected. "The jutsu she used is not deceived by lies, or what the subject would like to be true. What Haruno saw was the truth, plain and simple."

A woman who looked no younger than the man who'd spoken before leaned forward. "I am familiar with the jutsu that was performed--the Chisei Chikizuna no Jutsu, if I am not mistaken."

"That is correct, Utatane-san," Tsunade nodded.

"Then tell me if I am correct in this as well: when last I heard, the Chisei Chikizuna no Jutsu was a forbidden jutsu, considered far too dangerous to be used on a regular, or even occasional, basis." Tsunade nodded once again, somewhat grudgingly this time. "How, then, did Haruno come to know of such a jutsu?"

"It was a mistake on my part," the buxom blonde admitted. "I had her organizing some of the medical scrolls in my office, and apparently it had gotten mixed in with them."

"…So you were informed of the fact that she would attempt to perform this forbidden jutsu, Tsunade-hime?"

The Hokage snorted. "I'm her teacher, not her babysitter or her mother. She doesn't tell me everything, and she was smart enough to know that if I heard anything about it, of course I wouldn't allow her to take such a risk. But—" here she gave the older woman a sharp glare "—I didn't tell her _not_ to do it, either; and regardless of how foolish her actions might have been, Haruno Sakura is not on trial, nor are there adequate grounds for her to be put on one."

Utatane leaned back in her chair, obviously less than pleased, but there was little point in arguing the matter.

"So what are you suggesting by reading us that?" Homura spoke up again. "That we simply absolve the defendant of all charges?"

"I would respectfully disagree with that decision. Uchiha willingly submitted to being used as Orochimaru's vessel," Hyuuga Hiashi said quietly, piercing silver eyes locked on the dark-haired man standing before them with far more pride and self-confidence than he liked. "Lack of control notwithstanding, he is still indirectly responsible since he permitted his body to be taken over by another."

At this, the carefully regulated discussion gave way to scattered conversations, debates, and outright arguments.

"Hiashi-sama is correct, but placing the blame for the entirety of Orochimaru's horrendous actions on him seems a bit severe—"

"Then who _should_ they be placed on?"

"—Absolutely ridiculous, the mere idea of allowing such a thing—"

"Orochimaru is responsible—"

"Uchiha killed him, he can't stand trial for anything—"

"—Can't imagine what she was thinking, but perhaps—"

"—And good riddance, I say, the whole place was _crawling_ with missing-nin—"

"Uzumaki wouldn't stand for something like that--he'd fight to the death anyone who tried—"

"—Last of the Uchiha Clan, and Konoha can ill afford to lose such a powerful tool—"

The council members had been arguing back and forth for quite a while, and seemed well on their way towards exiling the last Uchiha without any hope of redemption or reparation when they were interrupted by a loud, easily recognizable voice:

"Excuse me."

The conversation died away as Naruto stepped forward, and after an uncharacteristically polite bow, he raised his head and addressed the Council.

"I know some of you probably still begrudge my very existence, and that since I'm half your age, if that, none of you are really all that inclined to believe anything I have to say, but here it goes anyway." He looked at each of the council members in turn, his gaze finally coming to rest on Tsunade. "Uchiha Sasuke used to be seen as one of the most promising young shinobi in Konoha—_hell,_ one of the most promising in _any_ of the hidden ninja villages. That hasn't changed. He still shows a lot of promise towards being one of the best, strongest shinobi that this village has ever seen…but that won't do anyone any good if you don't give him the chance to prove himself. The Uchiha Clan was one of the proudest and most prestigious, honored and full of good, dependable people…and Sasuke is a true Uchiha. I have every confidence that he will prove trustworthy once again." He straightened, his expression unwavering and resolute. "So long as you give him that chance to redeem himself, I swear that I'll take full responsibility for his actions."

"Why, Uzumaki?" Utatane demanded, her voice surprisingly strong for such an elderly woman. "You have only recently gained any sort of standing with this Council. Are you really willing to risk losing that by standing for him? You _know_ what he is, what he's done. He's a killer, a murderer, and worst of all a traitor. He turned his back on Konoha _years_ ago…and he turned his back on you as well. On top of that, he tried to kill you—both you _and _Haruno, if the reports I've read are correct—and now for some reason the two of you are his strongest supporters! _That_ is the person you are protecting, and you know it…so tell me _why?_ Why would you defend him?"

Her words were strong, and everyone in the room agreed with her, at least to a certain extent…or nearly everyone.

Instead of subsiding into bleak resignation at the councilwoman's statements, Naruto's eyes seemed to burn even brighter than ever, and his jaw set, as if he was ready to dig in for a fight.

And, well, he was.

"Why?" he repeated, voice tight with anger. "Because even though he denied it before, we _still _have a bond! Never once in all these years have _I _stopped being _his _friend, and as such, it is my duty to stand beside him! Because regardless of what he's done in the past, he is _still_ Uchiha Sasuke—top student of his graduating class, heir of Konoha's most elite clan—and _my best friend!"_

A flicker of surprise crossed Sasuke's downturned face, and his eyes darted up, fastening on the blonde man standing almost protectively in front of him. _Bonds… Heh. Naruto, too, huh?_

But Uzumaki Naruto wasn't through with the Council yet. Being polite had gotten him nowhere, and now his typically blunt personality was reasserting itself with a vengeance. "Yeah, he's made some stupid mistakes, I agree, but haven't we all? He left Konoha because he wanted justice—misguided, sure, but there are worse reasons to leave. I didn't understand at the time, and maybe I still don't really understand it even now, but he did what he thought was _right,_ regardless of what anyone else said, because he wanted the person who killed his family to be punished—something that _no one_ in this village was able to do, something that no one seemed even _remotely_ interested in." He snorted contemptuously, leveling an accusing glare at the Council. "I bet you were all relieved when Itachi left, weren't you? Instead of tracking him down, you just breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the gods that he was gone, and that it hadn't been your family that he'd killed. You were too scared of him to even _want_ to find him or bring him back." Naruto's gaze dimmed, pain evident in his voice, "Sasuke was scared of him, too…I know he was. But he didn't let that get in the way of achieving his goal of making sure that his brother paid for what he'd done. And when…" The blonde's voice suddenly choked, and he swallowed hard before continuing, "…When no one here would help him achieve that goal, he went somewhere else to get that help." Slowly he shook his head. "How can you blame him for that?"

Stunned silence met his words, and more than a few turned guilty faces down or to the side, refusing to meet those intense blue eyes.

"At least give him a chance to redeem his clan's honor...you owe him that much at least for failing to enforce the justice and peace you claim to protect. And keep this in mind, too…" Every head turned sharply as a flicker of powerful red chakra surrounded the Kyuubi container, and he bared his teeth ever so slightly at the entire Council. "…If you do _anything_ to him, if you so much as raise a _finger _against him, I promise you'll regret it, because I won't forgive you—ever." Quickly as it had appeared, the faint red outline vanished, and the entire room breathed out a collective sigh of relief as plain, obnoxious Uzumaki Naruto stood before them once again. "—And if you banish him, you're banishing me, too, 'cause I'm going with him!" he finished almost petulantly, crossing his arms firmly over his chest and scowling at the Council, and earning himself another startled glance from Sasuke. "And Sakura-chan will probably come with us, too," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"Well, we can't have that," Tsunade said at last with a small smile. "The future Hokage and our second-best medic leaving the village…I think about half of Konoha would leave along with you, Naruto." Her amber gaze shifted to the dark form standing beside the unrelenting blonde. "Clemency it is, then," she said quietly, sharing a meaningful look with the rest of the Council before slowly pushing herself to her feet. "The Council will have a brief recess to discuss this matter. We will return shortly with our verdict."

The various Council members shuffled out into the small adjoining room, darting furtive looks at both the raven-haired man and the blonde still standing before him and muttering amongst themselves; they were gone for the better part of an hour before they all shuffled back in again, and after all were seated once more, Tsunade stood to address the room:

"As the Hokage of Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, I declare that Uchiha Sasuke is to be granted a conditional pardon. The terms settled on by the Council of Village Elders are as follows: in addition to the mandatory six-month probation period for leaving Konoha without permission, Uchiha Sasuke will be placed under ANBU supervision for a period of at least but not limited to one year, the exact length to be determined by his behavior while under observation. Other specifics concerning this probation will be addressed by the Council at a later time. However," her gaze, still sharp, lanced into Sasuke, who barely resisted flinching ever so slightly, meeting her eyes with a faintly uncertain expression on his face. "In light of the service, intentional or not, done for the Village--the destruction of Sound, Orochimaru, and Uchiha Itachi--as well as his compliant behavior up until this point, the Council has agreed that Uchiha Sasuke's name will be cleared of all dishonorable records on completion of a few prior requirements." She held out a scroll, which Sasuke stepped forward and accepted with a stiff, distinctly reluctant bow.

"We will have a fifteen-minute recess, which should be time enough for Uchiha to look over the conditions." The Hokage turned her full attention back to Sasuke. "Read through the terms, then return here once you've made your decision." She nodded to the two ANBU standing guard inside the door, and they stepped forward to flank him.

"Come on, I'll take you somewhere where you can look that over in peace," Naruto said, half-dragging his old teammate towards the door.

Sasuke very much doubted that he'd find any sort of peace, at least not with Naruto around.

* * *

Seated at a desk with nothing on it besides the unwrapped scroll, save a brush and some ink, Sasuke bent to study the terms, Naruto leaning over his shoulder to see as well and predictably blocking the light. Growling inwardly, the Uchiha forced himself to ignore the _very_ irritating person hovering so close behind him and concentrated on the task at hand. He quickly skimmed over all the information Tsunade had already mentioned, pausing when he reached the line that read _The terms are as follows:_

_Firstly: he is to work to attain his proper shinobi rank, which the Council has determined is at least that of a jounin._

Sasuke nodded slightly in agreement, though Naruto said altogether too loudly for how close he was to his old teammate, "Nah, you gotta make ANBU captain at least!"

"Shut up, dobe," Sasuke said with his trademark glare, clapping a hand over his ringing ear and leaning away from the other man. "The longer it takes to reach whatever rank they decide is 'fitting,' the longer it'll take for them to leave me alone."

Naruto shrugged offhandedly, clearly not listening, his eyes scanning the other conditions listed in the scroll:

_Secondly: he is to train daily with a designated opponent, in order to help achieve the first requirement._

_ Thirdly: he is to complete any missions given to him by the Hokage without complaint, no matter how tedious and dull or dangerous and difficult._

This sounded vaguely ominous, and a shiver of anticipation ran down his spine at the idea of a challenge; however, Sasuke soon found that all it really meant was that he would spend a lot of time pulling weeds and fetching runaway pets--they didn't quite trust him with babysitting as of yet, which, with his limited patience, was probably a good thing.

_ Fourth, lastly, and _MOST IMPORTANTLY_: he is not to cause _ANY _trouble whatsoever; if he causes serious and/or irreversible injury to anyone during this time, he will be placed under immediate arrest, held for questioning, and quite possibly expelled from Konoha at the very least._

Sasuke snorted. Not exactly demanding requirements, but hopefully it would be at least somewhat interesting. His dark eyes settled on the final few lines, which he read slowly and carefully.

_ The Uchiha Clan bank accounts, which contained considerable funds, were seized by the Village of Konoha on Uchiha Sasuke's defection ten years previous; restricted access will be allowed through a secondary party, and they will be restored and unrestricted access will be allowed once his loyalty has been proved.  
_

_For the entirety of the first month, Uchiha Sasuke will be put under house arrest—he will not be permitted to leave the apartment provided for him without an escort. Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha's temporary guardians, are the only people who will be allowed to take him anywhere without a written consent from the Hokage herself.  
Also, Uchiha will be sealed in his apartment each night with paper seals. We on the Council have no illusions that it would serve as any sort of challenge for the subject to break these seals and wander as he would; instead, it is another way of testing the subject's loyalty and willingness to obey the orders of the Hokage and this Council: in other words, we know very well that the subject can get out, but he will be proving to us that he will not._

_ (This level of restriction is subject to change whenever and however the Council deems necessary and fitting.)_

_ Any misdemeanors deemed serious enough by any two Council members will be adequate grounds for a reevaluation of this case. If the subject escapes after carrying out any unlawful or harmful acts, Haruno and Uzumaki will be the ones who answer for it._

_ I, Uchiha Sasuke, agree to the terms contained herein, and will do my best to abide by them._

House arrest and being sealed inside his own home. Sasuke didn't particularly like the idea, but he knew that it made sense—no one in their right mind would allow an unproven ex-traitor and possible murderer to wander freely around the streets whenever he wished. As long as he did what they wanted (which seemed simple enough), they'd leave him alone soon enough.

"So what do ya think, teme?" Naruto asked apprehensively, this time a little farther away from the dark-haired man's ear than before.

In response, Sasuke picked up the brush, dipped it in the ink, and neatly signed his name in the space provided. After waiting an adequate time for the ink to dry, he re-rolled the paper and stood, glancing at Naruto as he did so.

"Alright, let's go!" the blonde exclaimed, leading the way back to the Council Chamber.

* * *

"I accept the terms, Hokage-sama," Sasuke said with another stiff bow as he placed the scroll on the table before the Council. The Godaime raised an eyebrow slightly, and Naruto elbowed the Uchiha hard in the side. "And," he continued grudgingly, shooting a quick glare at the other man, "I offer…my apologies for the trouble I've put you through." Sasuke's tone was low and just barely civil, hardly concealing his extreme displeasure at having to apologize at all; his expression, not quite as unreadable as usual, was reminiscent of someone being forced to eat nails (though truly what he was having to swallow was his pride, which wasn't any easier to choke down).

Another expectant silence, followed by another elbow in the ribs and another dark glare.

"…Please...forgive me."

Naruto beamed at the room in general and gave Sasuke an affectionate punch on the arm; the Uchiha grimaced and clamped his hand over the spot, looking fairly irritated. Tsunade ignored them both and unrolled the scroll, studying it for a moment, then she glanced up at Sasuke with a wry smile. "Very well, then, everything's in order. Welcome home, Uchiha."

This time his bow was quick and little more than a nod, but before Sasuke could turn away, the Godaime spoke: "Since early times, the Uchiha Clan has always protected the public order of the Village," she said, her voice and her expression unexpectedly soft. "Let it be so once again."

Sasuke looked her full in the face, and for an instant the smallest trace of a smile quirked the corners of his lips upwards. "Yes," he said with a minute nod, then turned and made his way out of the Council Chamber, Naruto slinging his arm around the dark-haired man's shoulders and chattering away brightly as they walked, and Kakashi trailing after them, nose in his book once again.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke was, in a word, frustrated.

He had been waiting for the better part of an hour for his supervisor--who happened to be Naruto today, thus the lack of punctuality was almost to be expected--to show up and escort him to the site of that day's predictably dull and labor-intensive mission. He was frustrated that he had to wait at the foot of the stairs, still within the arch of the stairwell and thus technically still inside the building; he was frustrated that each and every mission assigned to him thus far had failed to be even the slightest bit challenging; and as each minute passed, he was growing increasingly frustrated with Naruto for being late. He had been at this charade for nearly a month now, and he was, Sasuke realized with even _more_ frustration, nearly as bored being on probation as he had been while he was locked up in the high-security holding cell. Not that he held any illusions about how "free" he really was; he knew very well that he was still under constant surveillance by the ANBU--he probably couldn't take a dump without someone having to write up a report about it--and their continual presence, which he could sense all too easily, irritated him, though not immensely so.

(What _did_ irritate him, he thought sullenly, were all these stupid low-level missions he was stuck with, but he had agreed to that, so he couldn't really complain about it all too fiercely.)

The Uchiha snorted and let his eyes fall closed, shifting his weight to lean against the wall a bit more. He didn't know why he didn't just leave. There was no point in staying here, in this place that he'd abandoned so long before where everyone shot him nasty looks and whispered about him behind his back…but there was no point in going anywhere else, either. He'd achieved his life's goal: no longer was that constant pressure to fulfill all his childhood oaths of revenge spurring him onwards. His life no longer had any purpose. The emptiness that Kakashi had warned him about years ago had finally filled him, just as his old teacher had said it would...and he didn't know how to go about ridding himself of that emptiness.

And so he stayed, simply because it was easier than leaving, and because he knew that he had nothing better to do.

…And also (though he wouldn't admit it) because there really _were_ two people who actually seemed to care about him in spite of everything he'd done, regardless of everything he'd put them through, and they were here, which he supposed was reason enough to stay. They'd just hunt him down and drag him back again if he left, so why bother? He _really_ didn't have anything better to do.

But that didn't mean he'd ever truly be able to enjoy living here, or that he'd go out of his way to win back the trust of the rest of Konoha's population. There were only two people (two and a half, really, Sasuke decided--he honestly didn't see enough of Kakashi to count him as a whole person) in the whole village who mattered at all to the last Uchiha; the rest of them could all go to hell, and say whatever they liked about him on their way down, he didn't care one way or the other. He never had.

"Oi! Teme!"

He opened his eyes, looking up to see Naruto dashing towards him full tilt, and a small smirk curved along his lips. He would've thought the blonde would slow down at least a little over the years, but for the most part he was still the same old Naruto…loud, hyperactive, and annoying as ever.

Sasuke forced the smirk off his face, leaving his expression blank as usual as the Kyuubi container practically skidded to halt in front of him, kicking up a knee-high cloud of dust before posting his fists on his hips and grinning at him, all but saying aloud _Ta-da!_

The Uchiha blinked impassively at his friend's "impressive" entrance, idly wondering if perhaps the blonde had spent a bit too much time around Lee during the years he'd been gone. "You're late, dobe."

"I am not!" Naruto exclaimed, looking thoroughly indignant.

The raven-haired man gave him a withering look. "You are. You said ten o'clock, and it's nearly an hour after that."

"Ah, one lousy hour! Gimme a break! It's a _whole_ lot better than what Kakashi-sensei used to do to us, y'know, and my excuse is better than his, too!"

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke pushed away from the wall and started off down the street without waiting to hear said excuse. "Come on, dumbass," he grumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Let's go so we can get this over with."

Naruto had to jog a bit to catch up, but he let out a quiet chuckle as he fell into step with the Uchiha.

Sasuke glanced over at him coolly, then, against his better judgment, said, "What."

"Just thinking about the mission, that's all," the blonde said airily, an impish grin spreading over his face as he folded his arms behind his head. "I picked out a _great_ one for ya this time—made sure it was nice and _easy,_ seeing's how you've been stuck on all these difficult missions lately. I didn't want you to be nervous or _scared_ that you might get hurt or mess up or something." Ignoring the intense glare he knew had to be directed at him, the Kyuubi container smiled blissfully, closed his eyes, and began to whistle an annoyingly shrill and cheerful tune.

After less than a minute—

"Stop it," the dark-featured man beside him growled, and though he didn't say the words, there was a distinct _"or else" _in his tone.

"Ooh, Sasuke-teme is _scary!"_ Naruto laughed, dropping his arms and faking a wide-eyed, trembling cringe. "Too bad you can't follow through on that veiled threat, though—there's like ten ANBU watching us _right_ now, as I'm sure you're aware, and with your chakra levels being kept so low, there's no way you could get away from them. _And_," the blonde went on exultingly, "since Sakura-chan worked the night shift at the hospital last night, she's definitely at home sleeping right now, so I can say and do whatever I want to you without having to worry about her hitting me for it!" He flashed his sullen companion a grin that was far too full of teeth and smug satisfaction to be at all pleasant. _"You,_ my friend, are stuck with me."

Sasuke closed his eyes, a long-suffering look settling over his handsome face, and just kept walking.

* * *

The hot noon sun found them thigh deep in water, and nearly ankle-deep in mud; Sasuke was certain that his sandals were ruined, and by the look of some of the things he'd found growing in this lake, they might very well glow in the dark too. He'd have to pick up some new ones tomorrow morning…if his obligatory ANBU guard would let him, that is.

They were supposed to be harvesting some sort of algae from the bottom of the rather scummy lake, which was more difficult than it sounded--the dull olive green hue of the water obscured everything more than a foot below its surface. The Uchiha glowered at the stringy, oily-looking tendrils his most recent dredge of the lake bottom brought up before dumping them in the bag at his hip. The algae was used in a special healing salve for burns, though he couldn't imagine how anyone would have stumbled upon that sort of knowledge; the stuff absolutely reeked, smelling something like a cross between rotten eggs and Naruto's dirty socks, and the few times he'd accidentally let it make contact with his clothes or skin, it had left splotchy, green, and unexpectedly dark stains.

With a quiet grunt, voiced more from irritation than effort, the Uchiha jerked his feet free of the abnormally thick and viscous mud, nearly losing his sandals in the process, and slogged his way a little deeper into the lake. He was wearing pants, so his entire lower half was already soaked anyway; going a little farther in wouldn't make him any more (or less) miserable, and the algae seemed to grow thicker the deeper he went. He found himself wishing, and not for the first time either, that the handles of the nets they were using to harvest the stupid plants were just a bit longer; that way, he could have simply focused his chakra in his feet and stood on top of the water, thus avoiding most of the unpleasant aspects of this task, such as the mud, the general greasy feel of the water, and his very valid concerns about the possibility of leeches. Although, with how low they were keeping his chakra levels these days, he might not have had enough to do even something so inconsequential as that for very long…

A short yell followed by sizeable splash came from behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder at an obviously disgruntled Naruto, who, judging from the algae hanging from one ear and the water dripping from his hair and jacket, had lost his footing in the thick mud and slippery plant life covering the bottom of the lake and had subsequently gone for a little swim.

Sasuke snorted in slight amusement and turned back to the task at hand, wondering at the blonde's choice of this particular mission. Surely he had to have known that he'd be carrying out the mission objectives right alongside his "charge."

_Dobe._

The next instant, a sudden deluge of decidedly foul-tasting water engulfed him entirely, leaving him coughing and sputtering angrily. Slowly, ever so slowly, he turned to face his overseer, who was grinning cheekily and looking completely unrepentant.

He glared at the other man through thick black bangs still dribbling with distinctly grey-tinted water. "What the _hell_ was that for?" Sasuke gritted out, showing remarkable and, in his opinion, highly commendable restraint.

"You just looked like you needed to cool off a bit, that's all, teme," the fox-faced blonde chuckled.

Closing his eyes and reminding himself that he'd regret it if he killed Naruto (though he couldn't help but think that this lake would have been an ideal place to hide a body), the last Uchiha heaved a sigh and started to turn around once again, when—

_ WHOOSH!_

The water didn't taste any better the second time he was nearly drowned with it, and the poorly-restrained laughter coming from somewhere behind him was more than enough to convince him that swift and decisive retaliation was in order.

_Dobe, you are going to pay for that one._

Inwardly seething, Sasuke pushed his bangs back out of his eyes, his other hand casually slipping into the water to scrape a handful of mud off the bottom of one of his sandals.

He was beginning to _seriously_ reconsider his decision to stay in Konoha.


	10. Which Has A Confession & A Challenge

It was his first mission out of the village since his acquittal more than a month before, and one would think that Sasuke would have been at least a little excited by that prospect. And he might well have been, had said mission been something more interesting (and less lame) than picking up a cartload of sweet potatoes for one of the many street vendors in Konoha. With the hint of chill that had lightly flavored the morning air in recent weeks, it was all too evident that autumn was on its way, which meant that small wooden carts selling _yaki-imo*_ would soon dot the streets, selling their warm, delicious merchandise to passersby. The vendor who had contracted them for this mission was an old man named Arata whose rheumatism had gotten too bad for him to make the trip himself--half a day's travel there and back was a long way when one was in one's late seventies--and he had seemed pleasant enough, if a little deaf and overly inclined to bow politely numerous times (which of course had forced Sasuke to return the gesture since the man was so much his elder, which Arata-san had then returned, so the two of them had spent a good five minutes or so bowing back and forth at the end of every minor verbal exchange, much to the Uchiha's irritation).

Sasuke growled softly under his breath as the old brown mare who was pulling the cart whickered and nudged his arm with her nose. This had Naruto written all over it; he just _knew_ that that blonde idiot had set aside this lousy mission _just_ for him. No one else would bother with being that devious and underhanded about his mission assignments. Or that stupid (though at least this time Naruto had had the foresight to avoid getting sent on the mission along with Sasuke).

_I'm stuck doing all these ridiculous D-rank missions…you'd think that idiot would give me a break and actually send me somewhere vaguely interesting. But then again, it's probably his way of getting back at me for whatever reason. Who knows what goes on inside that dobe's head? What's more, who wants to?_

Snorting out a faint sigh, he shot a surreptitious glance over at his sole companion. Sakura, he reflected, had been oddly quiet for the entirely of the mission thus far. He was used to her chattering on and on about numerous inane topics, asking him questions but then rushing on before he could answer (which he most likely wouldn't have anyway, so it wasn't really an issue), though of course that had been her manner ten years ago, in the early days of Team Seven. She had apparently matured quite a bit, and they had been largely silent; in fact, the only times she'd spoken to him had been to offer him some lunch, and later on some water, as well as a single remark on the crispness of the air. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence at all—just unexpected.

He studied her contemplatively out of the corner of his eye. Her stride was confident and effortless, and she didn't look tired in the least, her eyes bright and alert, her expression relaxed into an easy, contented smile. _She almost seems like she's enjoying this, _the Uchiha thought half-bitterly, turning a frustrated glare down at his feet. _Restrictions or no, I'm going to_ kill _that idiot for this when I get back—_

"Looks like _someone's _not paying attention." Sakura's teasing voice broke in on his thoughts. "Shinobi rule #3 states that shinobi are supposed to constantly on their guard, and expect the unexpected."

Sasuke favored her with a withering glance. "Because this mission is so _very_ dangerous."

"You never know," the kunoichi replied with an offhanded little shrug that he caught with his peripheral vision. "Leaving Konoha at all always invites a certain level of risk." Sasuke snorted again and glared more fiercely down at the road. "It's nice to get out of there, though, isn't it, even if this mission _is_ mind-numbingly dull."

"Hn."

Ever since he'd been placed on probation, Sakura had been spending a lot of time with Sasuke--not that she hadn't been before, but now he was actually lucid and could respond to her presence, though oftentimes he still chose not to. Truth be told, she couldn't have avoided him even if she'd wanted to: she, along with Naruto, had been assigned full custody of the last Uchiha, which meant among numerous other things that they were required to check up on him at least twice a day. He still wasn't allowed to leave his apartment without one or both of his old teammates at his side unless he had a visible ANBU guard, though Tsunade had informed him that the Council was reconsidering this stipulation because of his excellent behavior thus far.

Still, forced or not, Sasuke had spent enough time with Sakura to recognize the fact that she had honestly and truly changed a great deal. The most marked change was the way she treated Naruto, for while they still fought occasionally, they were also openly affectionate towards each other, something that had flat-out shocked the Uchiha heir; on more than one occasion he had stood awkwardly by and watched as Sakura was practically tackled by Naruto, and instead of popping him in the face as had been her wont in days past, she returned the embrace, mirroring his wide grin and only letting him go after she'd tried (and failed) to squeeze all the air out of the tall blonde's lungs. During those moments, Sasuke was an outsider once again, shifting his weight and looking on uncomfortably as they chattered at each other, seeming to forget about him entirely, at least temporarily.

They were very close, that much was obvious, and though this bothered him a bit at first, Sasuke got used to it soon enough. Naruto was generally pretty affectionate towards him also (though of course this affection was shown through friendly punches in the arm or rough slaps on the back rather than hugs, an arrangement that both were _quite_ satisfied with); Sakura, on the other hand, hardly ever touched him. She didn't _avoid_ touching him--she still had to give him weekly check-ups, after all, on Tsunade's orders--but it wasn't like before, when she would use every possible excuse to lay a hand on his arm or brush her shoulder against his, though when she did touch him, it was still with the same sort of gentleness he'd noticed before. She was friendly enough, but recently it felt like she was being somewhat distant, which wasn't at all like the Sakura he remembered.

Another difference was the professionalism with which she approached nearly everything. Naruto and Sakura had initially agreed to evenly split what the Kyuubi container laughingly referred to as "supervision detail"--they would take turns accompanying Sasuke on his missions--but somehow the foxy blonde had managed to weasel his way out of a large portion of his half (he just _happened_ to have guard duty or a mission or a date, and _surely _Sakura-chan wouldn't want him to disappoint Hinata-chan), leaving Sakura to pick up the slack. And although sometimes they did all do missions together as a group, such as pulling weeds or cleaning up a river, most of the time it was just Sakura and Sasuke working together to capture runaway pets, paint buildings, build fences, tend flowerbeds, and complete countless other menial tasks.

But what really surprised Sasuke about all that was the fact that she didn't complain once; she simply accepted the task and worked alongside him swiftly and efficiently, silently tending to whatever minor wounds he obtained during the missions or through his daily training sessions.

This quiet, businesslike attitude was something new, and something to admire, though not overtly so; it wasn't really all that unexpected anyway, especially considering her age and her chosen profession. Sasuke had always prided himself on his self control, an area in which Sakura and especially Naruto had both been decidedly lacking back in their genin days (and in which the blonde still left something to be desired); it was a trait that he valued in other people as well.

Of course, boring missions such as the one they were currently on left plenty of time for even the most disciplined of minds to wander…

Once again Sasuke used his peripheral vision to surreptitiously study the kunoichi at his side.

Not all of the differences he'd noted in his companion were behavioral; many of them were physical. One of the biggest changes had to be the way she moved. Not only was her stride confident, but she practically radiated a feeling of carefully controlled power; Sasuke had often gotten a similar sensation from Tsunade, which certainly made sense given the bond between the Hokage and the younger kunoichi.

There were several _other _noticeable differences as well…

Sasuke momentarily allowed his eyes to wander over her slim but decidedly feminine frame, though unsurprisingly his gaze lingered longest on the ANBU-issue katana at her side.

It was still somewhat difficult for him to believe that she was in the Black Ops. He hadn't seen her fight in years, but he couldn't imagine that she'd really be that much of a challenge, otherwise he would've asked her for a match already. On the other hand, she _had_ been trained by Tsunade, one of the Legendary Three, who must have taught her _something_ besides medical jutsu; the near-perfect chakra control of a medic-nin was nothing to sneer at, as Sasuke had learned through watching, as well as occasionally facing off against, Yakushi Kabuto back in Oto, although the Uchiha doubted that Sakura was half as vicious as the silver-haired Sound nin had been.

He shuddered inwardly. Not that that was at all a bad thing.

She certainly did have a temper, though; that was one thing that hadn't changed. What had, however, was the fact that she was now willing to turn it on him, and while her outbursts honestly _were_ rather intimidating—another thing she'd no doubt picked up from the Godaime—they were still so altogether unexpected that it was all that Sasuke could do not to chuckle in response.

Sasuke's mind continued to wander, as did his eyes, and he soon found himself half-disinterestedly contemplating Sakura's personal life, as well as the graceful curves of her slender, toned legs.

She had been spending a _lot_ of time with him; didn't she have a boyfriend or something? Naruto obviously had Hinata--he babbled on and on about her when given the chance--but Sakura didn't really talk about that sort of thing at all. She could have just wanted to keep such things private--not everyone felt the need to share every detail of their personal lives with the general public as Naruto seemed to, after all--but he couldn't see any even halfway-interested boyfriend allowing his girlfriend to spend as much time with Sasuke as Sakura had in recent weeks. Still, it wasn't impossible that she might be seeing someone. After all, she didn't ask Sasuke on dates any more, but then again she didn't really have to—she could pretty much order him to go with her wherever she felt like dragging him.

Now that he thought about it, he faintly recalled that she _had_ mentioned dating several other men during one of those long, rambling, one-sided conversations they'd had months ago while he was in the hospital pretending to be unconscious.

Inexplicably, that thought left him feeling a bit strange and vaguely insecure.

And that, in turn, left him undeniably irritated. Why should that knowledge have any effect on him? So she'd been asked on a few dates while he'd been gone. So what? He certainly wasn't interested in her himself--although she was (Sasuke grudgingly admitted to himself) quite an attractive woman; so why did it bother him that other men had apparently noticed this fact as well? It had never concerned him before to know that other guys were interested in her--he'd been standing just a few feet away when Rock Lee asked her out for the first time, and Naruto had been constantly (and clumsily) trying to "put the moves on her" for as long as he could remember--but it hadn't bothered him at all back then. Why should it now?

Because, he realized abruptly, back then he _knew_ she liked him, and though her constant attention and attempted affections had annoyed him on occasion, at the same time he had to admit that the admiration had felt good; he'd _known_ that she wouldn't date anyone else--she liked him far too much to do so. Now, however, he wasn't really sure how she felt about him. Sure, he'd seen that same shy, adoring gleam in her eye when he'd first come to, and she spent a lot of time around him even when she didn't have to, but that didn't necessarily mean that she cared about him as anything more than a friend. Although...the look in her eyes when he'd not-so-politely asked her to remove her person from on top of him--similar to the look one would expect from a kicked puppy--had been hauntingly familiar…

A low whistling sound, undetectable to the untrained ear, suddenly filled his senses, and Sasuke spun around in a crouch, hand darting to the hilt of his kusanagi, his eyes searching for the shuriken he knew were spinning towards him. Before he could fully draw his blade, however, he heard the unmistakable sound of tempered steel being drawn, followed the quick, staccato ring of metal on metal. He blinked and found Sakura standing in front of him, casually resheathing her katana; as he watched, she stepped back around behind him, stooping to pick up one of the five throwing stars embedded in the ground where she'd been standing mere moments before.

Sasuke was irritated at her intervention--he could have handled it himself, really--but he was impressed nonetheless.

_ When did she get so fast?_

He shot her a glare that she missed, or at least she pretended to; she was too busy studying the shuriken that she'd yanked out of the road to take any notice of his current facial expression.

Suddenly she stiffened, her eyes darting up to meet his, an intense question apparent in their depths.

He nodded slightly. He felt them, too: three chakra signatures in the woods off to their right.

Sasuke's mind raced, taking in the situation and running various scenarios. They would most likely have to venture into the woods to engage their attackers, which meant that he and Sakura would be very vulnerable during their initial approach, as they were out on the open road and the enemy nin had the cover of the trees—

A decidedly unstealthy rustle came from the bushes about fifty meters ahead of them, and in a flash and what was practically an explosion of leaves, three thoroughly disreputable-looking men in dark, ill-fitting clothing stood in the middle of the road, blocking their way; all three wore masks over the lower half of their faces.

Sasuke blinked in surprise. _ They clearly had the upper hand due to their concealment, and they decided to confront us directly? What sort of idiots _are_ these guys?_

He had his answer soon enough.

"Uchiha Sasuke," said the one in the middle, a thickset man with shaggy reddish hair and several lurid tattoos stretching across what little was visible of his skin. "Lay down your weapons and come with us quietly. We have you outnumbered, so don't even think of trying to fight your way out of this."

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged quick, equally disbelieving looks, and both could easily tell what the other was thinking: _are these guys for __**real?**_

"What do you want with Sasuke?" Sakura demanded, glaring fiercely at the men obstructing their path.

"He's a filthy traitor…we want him to pay for what he's done," said the nin on the left, a short, wiry man with a rather pointed face and dull brown hair; the third man, who was of middling height and wore a pair of square, thick-looking glasses, nodded silently in agreement and raised a clenched fist, shuriken interspersed between his fingers.

Sakura's glare intensified. "Sasuke already stood trial—"

"And made a mockery of justice!" the first man cut in sharply. "He's a deserter and a mass murderer, and yet the Hokage and the Elders welcomed him back with open arms. Bloodline limit or not, last of his clan or not, nothing excuses defection!" His hands drifted towards the tanto tucked into his belt. "The only acceptable penance is death."

"The Hokage—!" Sakura began, but the tattooed man cut her off again.

"We came here to execute a criminal,_ not_ to discuss the matter with _little girls._" He smiled condescendingly. "But if you stand down as well, we'll spare your life, regardless of the company you keep."

Sasuke heard a quick, hissing intake of breath from beside him; unsurprisingly the man's remark had struck a nerve with his companion. He was startled, however when a pink-and-red blur leaped forward past him.

"Sa—" he began, then was abruptly cut off as she reared back and slammed a fist into the ground.

The ground between the kunoichi and the enemy shinobi crumbled like stale bread, and with three nearly identical yelps, the would-be ambushers disappeared into the sudden fissure in the road amidst the cracking of rock and a large cloud of dust.

Sasuke stared, trying valiantly not to gape as his petite, bubble-gum-haired companion gave a small noise of satisfaction and dusted off her hands, then retrieved a length of rope from the back of the wagon and approached the newly-formed crater she'd made in the center of the road. Standing on the edge, she posted her fists on her hips and tutted down at the three figures sprawled limply below her.

"Now then. Have we learned our lesson about underestimating _little girls?"_

A low moan was the only reply, and Sakura snorted and shook her head.

"If that's all you've got to say for yourselves, you're going to be in trouble."

With that she jumped lightly down into the gaping hole, emerging a few moments later with their assailants, all tied together in one big bundle with the rope, slung half-carelessly over her shoulder. Effortlessly, she tossed them into the back of the wagon with the sweet potatoes, then turned to face Sasuke's stunned gaze.

"Normally I'd kill them for trying to harm you, Sasuke-kun," she said, her tone matter-of-fact and almost apologetic, "but they're Konoha nin, so I thought it'd be better if we brought them back to stand trial. Though I don't want to think about what Naruto will do to them if he finds out that they tried to kill the both of us. He's not exactly the forgiving type." She suddenly clapped her hands together. "Oh, I bet you're wondering how I knew they were Konoha nin since they aren't wearing any visible symbols." She smiled with altogether too much levity for someone who'd just foiled an assassination attempted and explained, "I knew they had to be from Konoha because we were just selected for this mission this morning. None of the other Villages would have any way of hearing about our assignment, and even if they did, they certainly didn't have enough time to get a team out here to intercept us. Also, the shuriken they used have the signature of a local weaponsmith on them…and while they _are_ well-made, they're just regular shuriken--hardly worth exporting. So they had to be from Konoha." She turned an unimpressed glare at the motionless lump in the back of the wagon. "I figured that there would be some sort of trouble, so I was waiting for it…though I have to say, I _did_ think it would be more of a challenge." A smirky half-grin split her mouth and she gave a small chuckle. "I'm actually almost disappointed. Oh well. I guess _everything_ can't be challenging." She paused and turned a contemplative look on the road ahead of them. "Although getting around that crater I made in the road might be a little tricky."

For a long moment, Sasuke just stared at her. His eyes were slightly wider than normal, but other than that he gave no indication of his surprise or the sudden respect (grudging though it was) that he felt towards the pink-haired kunoichi smiling over at him.

At long last he snorted, closing his eyes and turning his back to her, snatching up the still-dangling reins with one hand and shoving the other back into his pocket as he started off down the road once again, cart, horse, sweet potatoes, and captives in tow. "Come on," he said, his tone flat and bored. "We're going to be late if we don't hurry. And if we _are_…" –she could hear the smirk in his voice as she ran to catch up to him— "…then I'm telling Arata-san, and Tsunade-sama, that it was _your _fault."

* * *

"So how'd you like your mission, teme?" The foxy blonde stopped shoveling ramen into his mouth long enough to shoot a devilish grin at the dark-haired man seated on the stool beside him. "I hope nothing too _dangerous_

happened."

Sasuke turned a flat stare on the Kyuubi container. "We were attacked by three Konoha nin on the way back who demanded that we surrender so that they could kill me in the name of justice." He shrugged offhandedly and turned his attention back to his meal as Naruto gaped at him, giving an unattractive display of his current mouthful of half-chewed noodles and seafood. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

_"Wha—?_ W-wait, are you _serious?_ No way!" Naruto turned wide eyes on Sakura, who was sitting on his other side. "Sakura-chan, is he telling the truth?"

The medic-nin looked up from poking halfheartedly at her noodles and smiled wearily at the blonde. "Yeah, we handled them, all right."_ More like_ I _handled them,_ she thought sullenly as she went back to her listless stirring. _But of course Sasuke wouldn't ever admit that someone else protected him, especially not to an old rival like Naruto._

It really _was_ wonderful having him back, though, Sakura thought as she watched Naruto chatter excitedly to Sasuke, who was listening intently with something like the ghost of a smile on his face. She had been aware, of course, that she missed Sasuke, but she hadn't really realized just how much she'd missed him until he'd finally come back. She felt pathetic and foolish, but she couldn't help spending as much time as possible around the Uchiha--she almost felt like she had to make up for lost time, and she still had a subconscious fear that he would leave again, something that she didn't think she could bear a second time.

…And also…

She turned her head, leaning forward just enough to see around Naruto, looking through his wildly gesticulating hands to study the quiet, dark-featured man on blonde's other side. Just looking at him made something in her chest tighten, causing her breath to hitch just slightly, and as she studied his familiar and exceptionally handsome features, just as she had so many times before, Haruno Sakura was forced to admit that perhaps she wasn't quite as over Sasuke as she had once thought.

_That's ridiculous,_ she snapped at herself inwardly, forcing her eyes away from the Uchiha's striking countenance and staring sightlessly down into her bowl of miso ramen. He was gone for years, and she was perfectly fine, and now that he'd shown up again she was mooning after him just like before? She snorted softly. _I don't think so._ She was just glad to see him, that was all…and anyway, there was nothing wrong with just looking, was there? In any case, it didn't really even bear thinking about. Even if she did still have feelings for Sasuke--which of _course_ she didn't, this was an _entirely_ hypothetical train of thought--she would never admit to it. It would only drive Sasuke away and destroy the friendship she'd been working so hard to build between them, and for what? He would never even consider thinking about her in that way, she was certain.

Sakura sighed and forced herself to eat a few more mouthfuls of the by-now-lukewarm noodles.

For some reason, that certainty bothered her a great deal more than it should have.

* * *

Sakura wasn't certain what to make of today's assignment. She chewed on her lower lip pensively as she made her way down the street amidst the afternoon bustle, taking a more roundabout path than usual to get to Sasuke's apartment; she needed time to think.

She honestly had a viable reason to visit him this time, one that didn't have anything to do with her status as a medic nin; _this_ was solely because she was an elite jounin, and a member of ANBU to boot: she was Uchiha Sasuke's designated sparring partner today.

Sakura wasn't sure whether she should be excited or unnerved by this news. While it _did_ mean that Tsunade placed a great amount of faith in her combat abilities, she was being asked to fight _Uchiha Sasuke,_ a veritable genius and her year's top rookie. Not to mention her old teammate and first love. (Of course, Tsunade hadn't bothered to tell her that the only reason she had been assigned the duty was because Neji and Sai were both out on ANBU missions, and Lee and Naruto had already both been given assignments that would last most of the day.)

Still, she had to go, regardless of how she finally decided to feel about it; orders were orders, after all.

She knew that Sasuke always practiced his shuriken-throwing for most of the morning on Mondays and Thursdays, and since today was Thursday, she had waited until the afternoon to go see him; regardless of her attempt to avoid inconveniencing him, a faint hint of annoyance was still visible on his face when he answered her knock on his door.

"I'm here to take you to your sparring session," she said brightly, smiling with a confidence she didn't truly feel.

Sasuke eyed her a bit skeptically, as if he'd somehow picked up on her false levity, but stepped back to allow her inside nonetheless.

"Who's my opponent today?" he asked as he sat to slip on his sandals.

"It's a surprise," Sakura said, keeping her cheerful expression firmly in place.

Sasuke glanced up at her, obviously not amused. "Tell me," he said, though it was really more of a command.

"Well, actually…" She bit her lip and hesitated momentarily as one dark eyebrow arched upwards. "It's me," she finished quietly, watching his expression carefully.

Sasuke suddenly went completely still--Sakura couldn't even tell if he was still breathing--then his mouth turned down and his eyes narrowed.

"No."

She blinked in surprise. "What?"

"No," he repeated, still staring up at her from his seat on the _genkan_ step. "I won't fight you."

Sakura's smile faltered, but then her own eyes narrowed a bit. "Why not?" she demanded.

The dark-eyed man gave her a look that was infinitely cool before slipping out of his sandals, placing them neatly to the side once more before turning and making his way back down the apartment's short hallway. "It wouldn't be worth it," he said, looking back at her over his shoulder.

Leaving her own shoes next to his in the entryway, the pink-haired girl followed him down the hallway into the apartment's small but immaculately clean main room. Sasuke looked up from pouring himself a cup of tea as she came to a stop at the end of the hallway, his glance all but saying '_what are _you_ still doing here?'_

"What."

"I'm not weak like I used to be, Sasuke." She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at him openly. "I've changed a lot—"

The Uchiha snorted, cutting her off. "Really? Could've fooled me. You seem to be following me around, just like always."

This was neither true nor fair, and they both knew it--she really didn't follow him around any more, at least not by her own choice--and he regretted the words the instant they were out of his mouth (why did he always _say_ things like that to her?), but the damage, such as it was, had already been done.

For a moment, Sasuke thought she was going to haul off and slug him like she had done to Naruto for years, or at least give him a good yelling-at--her eyes flashed hotly, her mouth tightened, her entire body went rigid--but abruptly all the fight seemed to drain out of her, leaving her dull-eyed and slump-shouldered. Dropping her eyes, she nodded wordlessly before turning and disappearing down the hall; a few moments later, the door creaked open, then quietly clicked shut.

Sasuke felt a brief pang of regret, but he pushed it away with little thought. He shouldn't feel guilty; all he'd done was avoid a complete mismatch. He didn't really want to hurt her, after all, and he was certain that would have been the inevitable outcome if he had agreed to spar with her. He usually managed to mess Lee up pretty badly, and Sakura couldn't be anywhere near the taijutsu virtuoso's skill level: no challenge at all. And while it _did_ usually prove entertaining to whale on Naruto a bit, pummeling Sakura into the ground didn't really sound all that enjoyable.

The Uchiha heir heaved a slight sigh and stared down at his tea, watching the steam curl up off the hot liquid.

It might've been nice if she'd stayed a little longer; perhaps he should have offered her some tea. He knew he had upset her, but she would have gotten over it soon enough; she always did. She wasn't such bad company these days, either, and he spent quite a bit of time alone, so her presence wasn't really an intrusion.

He shrugged inwardly. Well, since there was nothing else to do, he might as well do some reading…

* * *

Evening was falling over Konoha as Naruto trudged back in through the open gates, covered in dirt and bruises; Lee and Tenten, who flanked him, looked little better, if in fact not worse—the former's face was covered in shallow scratches, while the latter's hair was full of twigs and leaves and was falling out of its usually-neat buns. All three looked exhausted.

They were also surrounded by about two dozen lively, chattering children who, while nearly as dirty as their supervisors, were clearly not half as tired for the most part, though a few of them were yawning and dragging their feet, and each of the three adults had at least one sleeping child riding on their back.

The instant they were all inside the gate, the children scattered, vanishing into the growing shadows before any of the three weary jounin could get out a single word about the "mission reports" due the following day.

The ragged trio exchanged tired looks, then each shuffled off to deliver the children on their backs to their respective homes.

* * *

"That is the _last_ time I let Tsunade-baa-chan talk me into supervising one of the Academy's field trips," Naruto groaned to no one in particular. Even he, with his vast endurance, had found it difficult to keep track of so many children, especially when they all seemed more interested in "ambushing" or having wrestling matches with their chaperones than they were in collecting samples of the various leaves and pieces of bark Iruka-sensei had been lecturing them about for the past week.

Naruto suddenly grinned. It was strangely satisfying to know, however, that none of those kids had been _quite_ as hyperactive and mischievous as he had been. Not that a few of them didn't show promise…with a just little training, a gentle nudge or two in the right direction, he could have them driving Iruka-sensei not just _up_ the wall, but probably _over_ it as well.

The blonde yawned hugely and went to stretch, wincing halfway through the motion as a sharp pain lanced through his shoulder. He was momentarily bewildered, then he suddenly remembered: one of the younger boys had slipped off a tree branch on the way back, and Naruto, moving on reflex, had caught him well before he hit the ground. Unfortunately his attention had been so focused on the child that he'd failed to notice a particular branch before it had made rather solid contact with his shoulder, producing a decidedly unsettling _snap_; for a while afterward it had hurt to move that arm, and though the pain had soon faded for the most part, it still felt like something was _grinding_ there in his shoulder—understandably not a feeling that Naruto particularly enjoyed.

Normally he knew his remarkable self-healing abilities, courtesy of the Kyuubi, would have taken care of things, which meant that the injury was probably worse than he'd initially thought, which of course meant that he should go see Sakura-chan about it. If anyone would know what to do if something _was_ really wrong with his shoulder, Sakura-chan would know.

Sakura's apartment wasn't all that far from his own, so he took the time to stop by his place and clean up a little bit (he remembered that Sakura had commented about it rather unappreciatively the last time he'd shown up at her door without cleaning up from a mission: actually, she'd nearly had a fit…of course, that _had_ been after the algae-collecting mission-turned-mud fight with Sasuke, and he'd been so filthy, he'd scarcely been recognizable as a human being).

After a quick shower and a change of clothes, neither of which did anything to ease the pain in his shoulder, the blonde took off, hopping out the window by his bed and making his way across the two streets and three or four roofs that separated his apartment from Sakura's. Though it was tempting to let himself in via her balcony door, he went around the usual way (he also remembered the last time he'd burst into Sakura's apartment via the balcony—she obviously hadn't been expecting company and had just gotten out of the bath, leaving her clad in only a towel; healing abilities or no, Naruto had sported a large, knuckle-shaped bruise on his cheek for the next few days).

Smiling eagerly at the idea of simply spending time with one of his best friends, and hopefully getting his shoulder fixed in the bargain, Naruto knocked, long and loud, on her apartment door, half-shouting as he did so: "Sakura-chan! Hey, Sakura-chan, open up! I—"

The door swung open, and the bright, customary grin stretched across the Kyuubi container's face quickly vanished, a worried frown replacing it.

There was nothing about her hair or clothes to indicate that anything was wrong; in fact, she looked very nice, as if she'd just cleaned herself up within the last couple of hours, and though she was perhaps a bit pale, she didn't look unwell. But Naruto had known Sakura long enough to tell when something was wrong with his best and first real female friend, and he knew almost instantly that she'd been crying—the skin around her eyes was just noticeably swollen, a very minor detail, but a sure sign that his suspicion was correct.

"Sakura-chan…"

Seeing the stricken expression on his face, she forced a weak smile and rubbed at one of her slightly reddened eyes. "Naruto…what are you doing here?"

The blonde stared at her, his concern evident on his face. "I just got back from a mission, and think I did something to my shoulder, but that can wait. What's wrong, Sakura-chan?"

The pink-haired girl straightened and shook her head, instantly all business. "No, let me see that shoulder now. Come on in."

It didn't take her more than a few moments to determine what was wrong. "Looks like you partially dislocated it. Subluxations like this are common, and nothing to worry about…I'll just pop it all the way back into the socket—" there was a repeat of the same disquieting _snap_ Naruto had heard the first time "—and heal the damage to the ligaments and the surrounding muscle, and you should be perfectly fine."

Turning his head, Naruto watched as Sakura's hands began to glow a gentle blue-green, and warmth flooded the affected area, strengthening painfully stretched ligaments and re-knitting torn muscle. After a moment the warmth faded away, and with careful fingers she explored the joint to make sure that the surrounding tissue and bone were undamaged.

"There," she declared, satisfied that the injury had been completely taken care of. "Good as new. Of course, if you didn't have a medic-nin around who knew what they were doing, that arm would be in a sling for a few weeks." She gave him a teasing wink. "You're lucky you're friends with me."

"Thanks, Sakura-chan," Naruto said with a grateful smile as he slipped his shirt back on.

"No problem. Just go easy on it for a couple days, all right? It's healed, but the muscle is still pretty delicate, and the ligaments were strained, so your arm will probably be stiff and kinda sore for a while—"

"Yeah, okay, I'll be careful," he said, turning a serious look down on her. "Now it's your turn." He shifted on the couch to face her, pointedly giving her his full attention. "What's wrong, Sakura-chan? Tell me the truth."

The pink-haired girl stared at him silently for a long moment, unsure as to whether or not she should really tell him what the problem was. Naruto had loved her, she knew. He'd _liked _her for years, she knew that too, and though it had used to annoy the hell out of her, sometimes it still made her feel just the slightest bit guilty. He'd been denied so much already, she had hated to be the one to deny him once again something that he _should_ have had. But at that point she couldn't help it, and they'd both known it. Her heart had not truly been hers to give back then; she'd already given it to the person who needed it most of all. They'd both known that, too.

He had reached for her, had pursued her, and she had ignored him and pushed him away. And though she didn't deserve it, somehow he'd forgiven her. He'd come to care for her almost like a sister, though there would always be that special little soft spot for her in his heart, a remnant of past feelings that were _decidedly_ not brotherly. But regardless, she was still one of the few people who the blonde had become extremely close to--close enough for him to consider her family.

She knew that she had no right to turn to him about this, no right to involve him in this matter that had only ever caused him pain, no right to expect comfort from him; but something still made her reach for him at that moment—something purely visceral—and he didn't push her away.

Naruto, though slightly surprised to find Sakura clinging to him so tightly, gave a lopsided half-smile and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. There were numerous questions practically_ burning_ the inside of his mouth, but he forced them back, albeit with great difficulty; he knew that Sakura needed time to focus her thoughts, and that she would start talking soon enough, which would probably answer most of his questions anyway.

After what seemed like forever to the impatient blonde, the pink-haired girl gave him one final squeeze, then sat back, her expression troubled, but still composed.

"…I just don't know what to do," she muttered, rubbing a hand across her face. "It just seems like no matter what I do, Sasuke still refuses to see me as an equal. He thinks I'm not strong enough to be worth fighting, but he hasn't even really _seen_ me fight since we were kids! He just _assumes_ that I haven't changed at all, when really I've changed a lot--a _hell_ of a lot!" She slammed a closed fist down on the coffee table to emphasize her words, which actually worked better than she'd intended, as said piece of furniture shuddered and gave a decidedly ominous sounding creak. Sakura, however, didn't seem to notice. "He's just—he's just impossible! You and I have done so much for him—you nearly gave up your dream of being Hokage, threatening to go into exile with him like that—and he doesn't seem even _remotely_ grateful! I mean, I know we didn't do it because we wanted to be thanked, but it wouldn't kill him to act like he actually _likes_ being around us sometimes." The anger in her tone faded and she stared down at her hands, which were tightly folded in her lap. "It wouldn't kill him…to be a little nicer." Her eyes suddenly narrowed, and Naruto had to resist the urge flinch.

"I mean, who does he think he is, anyway?" the medic-nin said, voice rising once again. "He acts like _he's _the one who has to put up with _us,_ like _we're _the ones who are hard to get along with! _He's _the one who can hardly speak in complete sentences to save his life! Honestly, he has the emotional intelligence of a five-year old, if that!" Standing, she began pacing across the room; Naruto eyed her warily, knowing that in her current temper it was best that he be on his toes.

" 'Would you like some more tea, Sasuke?' 'Hn.' 'Do you want to go out for a while, Sasuke?' 'Hn.' 'How's your leg today?' 'Hn.' Sometimes I think that's all he can say! And what the hell is that supposed to MEAN, anyway?"

Naruto bit back a chuckle, but Sakura was too busy vocalizing months of frustration to pay him any mind.

"He's abrupt, and can be tactless, and doesn't hold conversations very well, and sometimes I don't think he listens to a word I say all afternoon, but yet—sometimes there's _something_ in his eyes or on his face, something just below the surface, and when it's there, somehow I know that he cares. And I—oh, God." The medic-nin's eyes had gone wide, and her voice sunk to a whisper as she dropped back onto the couch with a soft _thump_. "I…I _do_ still love him."

"Well, yeah," Naruto snorted in a tone that he might just as easily have used to say _duh. _"Even _I_ knew that, Sakura-chan…in fact, I knew it right from the beginning."

Accustomed as she was to the blonde's boasting, the pink-haired girl gave a rough chuckle and dragged a hand back through her hair, ignoring his verbal swagger. "Well…maybe I haven't changed as much as I thought…" She sighed and looked over at Naruto sheepishly. "But I guess it makes sense…and if I was really going to be honest with myself, and with you…I guess that's why it's so hard for me when he doesn't seem to care." She stared down at her folded hands once more. "I dedicated myself to my studies, to my training, to making myself into the strongest kunoichi I could possibly be, and I was happy with what I'd become. I finally felt like I was _worth_ something, Naruto…and yet…" There was a tremble in her voice, but she swallowed it back and went on: "Yet all he has to do is _look_ at me like that--you know the look, you of _all _people know the look I'm talking about--and all my confidence crumbles away to nothing."

She shook her head hard, caught halfway between fierce, justifiable anger and the frustrated tears that glittered insistently at the corners of her eyes. "He still treats me just like he did when we were twelve, and he was the strong, smart, talented one, and I was nothing more than a weak, useless, foolish little girl. All my hard work means nothing to him…because he refuses to admit that I've changed."

Her fists clenched around the bottom edge of her simple one-piece dress, knuckles flaring white. "But I _have_ changed," she said in a low, dark tone. "And if _anyone_ is better than _anyone else_ in this situation, then_ I_ am better than _he_ is…but…" She shut her eyes tightly, and this time swallowing did nothing to remove the tremor from her voice. "…But somehow the way he looks at me so coldly tells me that I'm _still_ not good enough for him."

"Sasuke is an idiot," Naruto growled. _"And _a bastard. You can't base your self-worth off of what _he_ thinks—"

"I know that," Sakura interjected. "And I don't, not really. It just...it hurts to know that someone I care so much about, that someone I…I _love_…won't take me seriously."

Silence stretched between them for a long while, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally:

"Why," Naruto muttered dully. "Why do you like him? He's _never_ nice to you. Never. And he never was, either."

Sakura bowed her head, feeling the tears gather once more. "I…I don't know…" she murmured. "But you…more than anyone…you know that he's kind deep down…we've both seen it."

"That was a long time ago, Sakura-chan."

"But still…"

"And that last time we saw him a few years ago, he tried to kill us. And the time before that, and the time before that, too." Naruto's voice was sullen and he scowled down at the surface of the coffee table, refusing to meet her eyes. "And the time before _that,_ he knocked you out and left you all alone on a bench at night. And now, even after all that, you forgive him and still bother to spend time with him. You took care of him, looked after him when everyone else had given up on him--_hell,_ you saved his_ life_ at the risk of your own--and apparently he could care less." He snorted. "Some friend…" _Some lover._ The words hung between them--unspoken, but somehow there nonetheless.

They were silent for another long while, then Sakura bit her lip. "I know it doesn't make any sense that I still feel this way for him after all this time…I'm…actually pretty confused myself, but I…I don't think you can really _choose_ who you love…I think it just sort of…_happens."_ She fiddled absently with the hem of her dress. "Sometimes feelings change with time, and with distance, and—and sometimes…"

"…Sometimes they don't," Naruto finished for her, looking over at her at last.

She nodded miserably as the tears threatened to spill over again, and she fought them back desperately. _Mustn't cry in front of him, mustn't cry in front of him, mustn't…_

Before she knew it, she was sobbing into his chest, his arms wrapped comfortingly around her.

The Kyuubi container hugged her tightly, almost crushing her to him, as if he never wanted to let go…and a part of him didn't.

After a minute he loosened his hold just slightly, bringing one hand up to cradle the back of her head, rubbing soothing little circles on her back with the other. After a while her sobs dwindled down into simple sniffling and the occasional shuddering hiccup, though she kept her face buried firmly against his jounin vest.

The blonde angled a tender look down at the top of her head, his face taking on an expression she would've blushed at had she only seen it; then he slowly raised his head to stare unseeingly forward, the skin around his bright blue eyes tightening as a dangerous light entered them, his grip on the slender girl before him tightening reflexively.

For now he had to stay and comfort Sakura-chan, and get her back to her usual cheerful self, at least partially…but once he'd done so…

His eyes narrowed even more, and he had to clench his jaw to keep from grinding his teeth.

After he'd made sure that Sakura-chan was alright, he had to make a _very_ important visit: a certain someone was in desperate need of having some sense beaten into him, and as always, Naruto was more than happy to oblige.

* * *

The knock on his door was unexpected, especially considering the late hour, but since he was awake anyway, Sasuke figured that he might as well answer it. He recognized the chakra signature, after all, and knew that ignoring this person would do little to no good: the bull-headed blonde would simply stand outside and continue beating on the door until Sasuke let him in. Or until he got sick of waiting and simply smashed the door down. And since the former left him with less of a mess to clean up and hopefully (though somehow he doubted it) less trouble all-around, the last Uchiha opted for simply opening the door.

Still, a visit at this hour _was_ unexpected, and therefore also unwelcome; but regardless of this, after about five minutes of persistent knocking, the last minute of which had included some rather creative swearing, Sasuke made it to the door, wrenching it open to glare out at the current bane of his existence.

As expected, he found Naruto standing there, his expression surprisingly grim, and it did not escape Sasuke's notice that the blonde's fists were balled at his sides.

For a long while they just stared at each other; surprisingly it was Sasuke who finally broke the silence.

"What do you want, dobe?" he growled, doing little to hide his annoyance at the unwanted intrusion.

"Fight me."

The Uchiha blinked, his glare momentarily vanishing in his surprised expression; then it returned, darker and more intense than before. "What?"

"You heard me," Naruto said, his own voice nearly a snarl. "I'm calling you out--challenging you, right here, right now."

One dark eyebrow arched skeptically. "You know I'm not allowed to do any fighting. I'm still on probation, in case you've forgotten." He snorted and shifted his grip on the door, anticipating shutting it in his one-time-rival's whiskered face. "I don't know why you're acting so pissy, but somehow I don't think you want me kicked out of Konoha."

"You skipped your sparring session with Sakura-chan today, didn't you?"

Eyes narrowed once again, Sasuke nodded.

"Then this is your exercise for today. Come on." And with that, the blonde abruptly turned and stalked off down the hallway without even waiting to see if Sasuke would follow him.

Vaguely curious and unquestionably irritated, the visibly displeased Uchiha went after him, slipping on his sandals and closing his door firmly behind him.

* * *

Sasuke was not the least bit surprised to find himself being led to Training Ground Three. Once there, however, Naruto stopped but didn't turn to face him. The Uchiha stared at his back expectantly, hands still shoved carelessly into his pockets, waiting for the blonde to explain himself.

He didn't have to wait long. As he watched, Naruto's shoulders shook slightly with a barely audible chuckle, then the Kyuubi container turned his head, teeth bared in a feral grin. "Glad you decided to accept my challenge, you bastard. I was looking for a nice, friendly match," he said, though judging by the twisted half-smile on his face, he was really looking for anything but. "I'll warn you, though…you'd better take me seriously this time, or I _will_ kill you."

"Fine." Sasuke smirked, shaking out his arms and widening his stance slightly. "Come and get me, then."

He didn't have to say it twice.

In a flash the blonde was directly in front of him, swinging a vicious right hook at Sasuke's face. The Uchiha's left hand darted upwards, easily catching the blow, and he lunged low and jabbed with his own right fist, attempting to nail Naruto in the gut.

The Kyuubi container skipped back out of reach--or tried to, in any case; Sasuke still had a tight and chakra-enhanced hold on his right fist. He had enough leeway to avoid the blow aimed for his midsection, though he had to twist a bit as well, but his mobility was still greatly impaired.

But so was Sasuke's, and the Uchiha seemed to have forgotten just how strong his old teammate was; when Naruto jerked back, Sasuke was almost pulled off his feet when the blonde unintentionally dragged him forward a good five meters.

He managed to harness this momentum however, using it to fuel a sweeping roundhouse kick, which Naruto only barely managed to block; Sasuke's free hand settled around the wrist of the fist he was still holding, and before the blonde knew what he was about, the raven-haired man pivoted and threw him, releasing his grip on Naruto's hand as he did so.

Unsurprisingly Naruto flipped in the air, righting himself and landing smoothly; equally unsurprisingly, he hurled himself back the Uchiha the instant his feet touched the ground, fist cocked and at the ready.

The two shinobi continued to fight using pure taijutsu for a considerable period of time, but after a while, it slowly became evident that Sasuke was still slightly better at hand-to-hand combat than the future Hokage.

Naruto grimaced. _When it comes down to it, I guess I'm still no match for someone using the Sharingan…_ He suddenly blinked, blue eyes going wide as he caught and held one of Sasuke's fists, staring with unconcealed astonishment into hard, coal-black eyes that had not the faintest trace of red in them.

_He's not even using his Sharingan—and he's STILL beating me!_

The shock from this unexpected revelation gave Sasuke enough leeway to wrench his fist free of the blonde's grasp, throwing his elbow up into Naruto's face as he did so; blood spurted from the blonde's nose, and while Naruto's eyes were still watering from the blow, the Uchiha followed up with a rapid one-two punch combination and a kick that was hard enough to send the Kyuubi container flying backwards to sprawl in the dust, bloodied and more than a little angry.

"Get serious, teme!" the blonde snarled, swiping the back of his hand across his face and leaving a sticky, dull red smear across a good portion of his mouth and chin.

Sasuke merely gave him a bland stare. "Make me."

_"Fine_ then, I will!" Naruto growled, baring his teeth at the other man. _"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_ No less than a dozen Narutos now stood facing an extremely bored-looking Sasuke.

"That? _Still?"_ he scoffed as the clones slowly formed a circle around him. "Didn't you learn anything else while I was gone?"

The twelve blondes chuckled, showing off identically devious grins. "Guess you'll just have to watch and find out, won't you?"

One corner of the Uchiha's mouth twitched upwards for a fraction of a second as his Sharingan finally snapped on. "I guess I will," he said, slipping into a ready stance. The ghost of a smirk hovered around his lips once again as he condescendingly beckoned the Kyuubi container forwards…

And with a roar, all twelve clones charged.

* * *

Rule number one of taijutsu fighting, and the first thing the young shinobi were taught about hand-to-hand combat at the Academy, had been, "Never allow your opponent to use the momentum of your own attack against you." This lesson had been imparted in a painful and rather embarrassing manner as the young, inexperienced, and basically clueless students rushed headlong at their shishou one after the other, and had in turn been thrown easily over his hip or shoulder (whichever struck their teacher's fancy at the time) to sprawl in a graceless heap behind him. (But not for long--most of them learned the hard way to move quickly and get the hell out of the way before the body of the next airborne student flattened them.)

This rule had been pounded into them in a similar fashion for months, and it was not uncommon for them to be reminded of it even in their later years if they grew careless or overconfident in a fight.

(And yet for the longest time, Naruto had _still_ managed to forget that one very important lesson at just the wrong moment.)

Sakura had been particularly wretched at taijutsu, a fact that hadn't really changed until she'd been trained by Tsunade, but after that first ego-bruising session, she had never again made the mistake of simply rushing blindly at an opponent without any plan in mind other than "smash his face in with my fist."

Naruto, on the other hand, had never really seemed to get past that point, though at least now it was almost always a clone that rushed in headlong rather than his real body.

But then again, what _seemed_ to be and what _was_ were often two very different things.

* * *

It only took a matter of moments for Sasuke to beat down the last of Naruto's clones, but once the smoke cleared, the real Naruto was nowhere to be found. Black-flecked scarlet eyes scanned the surrounding area; it was littered with shuriken and kunai from the clones' attacks, but otherwise did appear truly empty—

Suddenly Naruto flickered into existence directly in front of him, fist already drawn back. He was in mid-swing before Sasuke fully registered that he was there, and it was only with the greatest of difficulty that the Uchiha avoided the straight jab aimed directly for his nose, jerking his head sideways to allow the blow to pass over his shoulder; had he failed to move, he was certain that the blow would have broken--more like _shattered_--his nose.

Before he could retaliate or even grab hold of the blonde ninja, Naruto flickered out of existence again, leaving Sasuke standing alone in the center of the training grounds, slightly shaken.

_How did he catch me off guard like that? I never saw him coming, even with my Sharingan activated—_

The air around him shifted, and he threw himself sideways just in time to avoid another punch from the blonde who had somehow suddenly appeared behind him. Sasuke effortlessly turned his fall into a cartwheel, but the instant he was fully upright again, Naruto was in his face, fists swinging, refusing to grant the other man a moment of respite until he'd landed a solid blow on his cheek, sending the Uchiha stumbling backwards a few feet.

_ And I thought Sakura had gotten fast...I can't follow his movement at all, even with my Sharingan!_ He gritted his teeth in frustration, fists clenching painfully tight. _What technique _is _that?_

There was another series of flickers, and suddenly Naruto was everywhere at once, moving at a ridiculous speed, snapping out more punches and kicks at the same incredible pace as before, though this time there was a great deal more anger and muscle behind them.

"So Uchiha—" a fist buried itself solidly in his gut, forcing the wind from his lungs "—what—" a second fist connected to his right cheekbone, snapping his head around painfully "—do you think—" an elbow jabbed into his left kidney from behind "—of _this_ technique?" Naruto finished with a sharp kick to Sasuke's jaw, knocking him to the ground and sending him rolling and skidding backwards a good ten meters. Blue eyes watched dispassionately as the Uchiha used the momentum to roll himself onto his feet, ending in an apprehensive crouch. "Hiraishin no Jutsu, in case you were curious. Considerably better than Kage Bunshin, wouldn't you say? Though it's not much of a _show,_ is it, even _with_ your Sharingan activated."

At that Sasuke's eyes went wide, his muscles tensing even more as he stared at the glowering blonde. _That dobe! He chose this strategy on_ purpose_—he_ knows _that I can't follow him with my Sharingan! What the hell kind of jutsu—?_

"It was developed by the Fourth…and neither the Hyuuga nor the Uchiha _Kekkei Genkai_ can see through it." A small, dark smile suddenly turned the blonde's mouth. "Why don't you take a look at that kunai by your hand?"

Sasuke's eyes darted quickly to the side, and he blinked in surprise at what he saw: a tag emblazoned with a seal of some sort was wrapped around the kunai's handle. A rapid glance at a few of the other kunai littering the area showed more of the same, and the Uchiha's eyes narrowed. _He must use these to move instantaneously from place to place. The Kage Bunshin were just a distraction to make me underestimate him, and to make sure that I wouldn't have time to notice the seals on the kunai being thrown at me._

"Figured it all out yet, Uchiha?" Naruto's voice asked from somewhere behind him, though when he turned to look, the blonde was gone. He let out a soft snort: he'd expected as much. "I'm sure you have--you _are_ a genius, after all. But I'm not the same thoughtless, impulsive brat that I was ten years ago, if you can't tell." The voice came from his right this time, but Sasuke kept his head turned firmly forwards, though he allowed his eyes to slide sideways; he just caught a brief flash of orange before the voice was speaking from his left instead. "I fully possess 'the qualities of both heaven and earth,' as you did even when we were just genin. I'm strong enough--_and_ smart enough--now to be the Hokage—" Naruto suddenly appeared directly in front of him once more, dropping the startled Uchiha back into the dirt yet again with a vicious right hook before flickering away to stand and stare angrily at the other man from a few meters away. "—And don't you dare forget it!"

From his seat on the ground, Sasuke returned the stare, though his gaze contained more suspicion now than anger. _This isn't like Naruto. He only pounds…friends…like this when he thinks they need some sense beaten into them… _Closing his eyes, Sasuke let out a sigh that was more than half-growl; when he opened his eyes, they were dark and bloodless once more. _Might as well get it over with. _"What do you want me do to?" he muttered sullenly, wiping the blood from his chin with the back of his hand and glaring at his so-called best friend.

"What do I want you do to?" Naruto repeated, his voice an angry chuckle. "Right now, I want you to go to hell. But for the sake of someone else who's important to both of us, I'll spare you that fate for now."

"You are impossible, dobe," Sasuke growled, pushing himself back to his feet. "And this fight is pointless. You might be faster than I am, but you aren't doing much damage regardless of that." (That was actually a lie, but Naruto didn't have to know that.) "You know you can't use the Kyuubi's power against me, so why did you bother picking this fight in the first place?"

"I don't need the Kyuubi's power to hand you your ass!" Naruto snarled, jabbing a finger at the scowling Uchiha. "And I proved it to you years ago!"

"_Why_ did you challenge me, Naruto? I'm not stupid enough to believe that you managed to get this worked up over the 'friendly match' you asked me for."

"Fine." The blonde's eyes narrowed, his lips pulling back to reveal bared teeth. "I did it for Sakura-chan."

The dark-haired man's eyes narrowed as well. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm _talking_ about how you treat Sakura-chan! She's done so much for you, and you've never even thanked her! You don't treat her as an equal, regardless of all the hard work she's done! You won't even _smile_ at her, much less show some appreciation for the way she's taking care of you!"

"She's doing that because it's a mission. She was assigned to do it."

"_She's DOING it because she actually __CARES __about you, you __BASTARD, __and you won't even __ACKNOWLEDGE__ her!"_

Sasuke snorted and shoved his hands back into his pockets, utterly unaffected by the blonde's tirade. "Here's an idea: why don't try minding your own business, dumbass?"

"And here's another idea," Naruto countered hotly. "For once in your life, why don't you _try_ to care about how someone else feels? Why don't you try putting someone _else's_ happiness before your own stupid, all-consuming selfishness?"

"_Idiot."_ Contempt dripped from those three syllables, and without another word, Sasuke turned on his heel and stalked off towards his apartment.

But Naruto wasn't through with him yet.

"You got your revenge!" the blonde shouted after him, as usual not caring who might happen to overhear them. "You achieved your life's goal! So what's your excuse for being selfish now, huh, Sasuke-teme? I'd _really_ like to know!"

Sasuke ignored him, continuing onward without pause.

"…You're hurting her, you know."

Despite the fact that they were spoken more softly, those words _did_ make him pause, though he didn't bother turning around, leaving Naruto to glare accusingly at the red-and-white Uchiha clan symbol on his back.

"You're hurting her _again,_ and this time I won't stand for it!" Slow, deep anger was working itself back into Naruto's voice, which was already shaking from narrowly repressed rage. "And I swear, right here and right now, that I will pound you into the ground every chance I get until you at least _respond_ to Sakura-chan's feelings—be it positively or negatively. Right now you're just being a coward by not saying anything at all, and it's not fair to do that to Sakura-chan." Then his voice went unexpectedly and unusually quiet, and Sasuke could hear the thinly-veiled pain in his tone. "It isn't fair to make her wait for you if you know that you'll never, ever feel anything for her."

For the first time, the Uchiha's cold, arrogant expression slipped, and he bowed his head, glad that his back was to the other man. He didn't know about the whole 'responding to her feelings' bit, but perhaps he _had_ been a bit harsh with 'd risked her life for him, after all—the Konoha nin who'd assaulted them on that mission out of the Village a few days ago had been pathetically weak, but supposing they'd actually been any good, Sakura would have been in considerable danger simply because she was with him. Nevermind the fact that she'd risked her life to heal him in the first place… Didn't he owe it to her to be just a little bit kinder?

_ That idiot is right, she hasn't done anything to deserve it, but for some reason when she's around… _He shook his head slightly, unable to finish the thought. It was reflex by now to push away anyone who attempted to get too close, and Sasuke wasn't at all certain that he could change that, or if he even _wanted _to, but…

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"...I'll try."

And with that, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

A small, satisfied smile crossed the Kyuubi container's lips. "You'd better," he said to the empty air before shoving his own hands into his pockets and making his way back towards Sakura-chan's place.

* * *

"Naruto! What on earth?" a very surprised Sakura gasped, seizing his arm--the non-injured one--and dragging him into her apartment to get a better look at him. "Isn't twice in one night a little much? And _ugh,_ I told you to take it easy on that shoulder! What happened to you?"

He flashed her a foxy grin as she fell to work cleaning him up and examining his injuries, which to her relief were mostly just minor cuts and bruises. "Ah, you know me, Sakura-chan...always getting into trouble and picking fights."

_

* * *

A/N: *Yaki-imo - baked sweet potatoes. Often sold by street vendors in Japan during autumn. Also often thought of as a sign of the season. _(:


	11. Which Is Somewhat Compromising

"Hey, Haruno-senpai? One of your regulars is in Room 253."

Sakura glanced up from the chart she was filling out to see an intern--this one vaguely reminiscent of a brown-eyed, brunette, but thankfully much less manic Naruto--grinning at her from her office doorway. It was a private joke among the hospital staff that Sakura had "regulars"--those members of her personal group of friends who always insisted on having her heal them--and Sakura met the intern's wide grin with an amused smirk.

"Which one?" More often than not it was Naruto, but she'd seen him just last night, and other than that shoulder and a few bruises he'd been fine. A quick glance at the clock confirmed that the blonde was supposed to be supervising one of Sasuke's missions right now, so unless they'd managed to get into a particularly nasty scuffle…

"Oh, one of your _favorites,"_ the intern said with a roguish wink before moving on to deliver the thick stack of papers cradled in his arms.

Sakura nodded to herself. Right. Pushing the chart aside to finish later, she stood and stretched the worst of the kinks out of her shoulders before stepping quickly to her door and down the hall. The intern hadn't said it was an emergency, and he had seemed pretty laid back about the matter, so it couldn't be anything _too_ serious, but knowing the temperament of most of her "regulars", she'd probably better get over there soon—for the sake of rest of the hospital staff's sanity, if nothing else.

As she made her way down the hall and around a few corners towards the designated room, her mind drifted back to the events of the previous night. In retrospect, she felt mildly embarrassed about crying all over Naruto like some over-emotional teenager; but Sakura was old enough to know that sometimes emotions just got the better of you, especially when something as strong as love was involved, and she also knew Naruto well enough to know that he hadn't minded in the least. Unconditionally accepting and unreservedly loving: that was just the way Uzumaki Naruto was.

Still, a part of her hoped that she wouldn't be confronted by the whisker-faced blonde when she opened the door to Room 253; the all-too-recent memory of her decidedly immature behavior still left her feeling vaguely uncomfortable at that prospect.

As she turned the last corner before Room 253, she was met by a rather harried-looking nurse; relief visibly flooded the woman's face as her gaze fell on Sakura, and she hurried up to the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Oh, Haruno-san, thank goodness…" The nurse quickly handed over the files and clipboard in her arms, looking quite glad to be rid of them.

"What's the situation?" Sakura queried with a wry smile, accepting the armload with a nod of thanks.

"Nothing too serious. Cracked ribs, fractured clavicle, multiple contusions, most likely some deep lacerations or puncture wounds…he was bandaged already, though they need changing pretty badly by the look of them, but he wouldn't let me do it. He _insisted_ on having your diagnosis first."

Sakura resisted the urge to chuckle. "What _did_ he let you do for him?"

The nurse's ears reddened slightly. "Uh, we got him to sit down and take off his shirt, but that was about all we could manage…"

This time Sakura did chuckle. "Well, that's better than usual—good job." Giving the nurse a reassuring pat on the shoulder, she moved around her, heading for the room containing the patient in question. From the sound of it, he must be one of her more well-mannered regulars, which meant that it had to be—

"You again?" she snorted as she stepped into the room and over to his bedside, her presumption proved correct. "You know, other than Naruto, I don't think I see _anyone_ in here as much as you, Neji-san."

The Hyuuga attempted to gave an offhanded little shrug, though it came off looking a good deal more stiff than he probably would have liked. "Well, what with your busy schedule and all, this is the only way I can be sure I'll see you." She blinked and looked at him in surprise, trying and failing to find the glint of dry humor in his eyes that would tell her that he was merely joking. "The real trick," he went on, sounding quite serious, "is obtaining wounds that are serious enough to receive your undivided attention, yet not getting injured so badly that I fall unconscious. What good would it do to have you here if I'm not awake to enjoy your presence?" The corners of his mouth twitched just slightly, and there it was: that elusive teasing glint.

"You, Hyuuga Neji, are the thirdmost frustrating patient I have _ever_ met!" she growled, and moved to swat at him; at the last minute, however, she remembered his injuries and decided against it. "So…the nurse mentioned cracked ribs and a fractured collarbone among other things…what happened?" she asked as she carefully began to peel back the bandages, which were encrusted with dirt and a considerable amount of dried blood, from his chest and upper arms. He was still in his ANBU uniform (though he'd removed the top to give Sakura access to his wounds) and, by the look of him, hadn't taken the time to clean himself up, which was unusual; his injuries must have been bothering him more than he was letting on.

His voice was steady and calm as ever, however, and he scarcely winced as Sakura removed the old bandages, though that reopened the rather nasty-looking wounds, setting them bleeding afresh. "Regretfully, I am not really at liberty to say. The mission itself was classified. However," he tapped his ribs, "a crushing Earth jutsu," he pointed to his collarbone, "a kick that I believe was actually meant for my face," he gestured to the bruises spotting his arms and chest "debris from an explosion, and," he nodded at the deep puncture wounds Sakura was currently cleaning with antiseptic, "an extremely well-disguised senbon trap."

The pink-haired medic snorted again as she focused her chakra on the senbon wounds, checking them for poison or other infections before closing them up. "If _you_ came back looking like this, Neji-san, then I'd hate to see the rest of your team…"

Neji gave a minute shake of his head. "It was a solo mission."

"S-class, I presume."

His faint smirk was response enough.

"You've been pretty busy with missions lately, haven't you?" she went on as she moved to examine his ribs and clavicle. She hadn't seen much of the handsome Hyuuga of late—she'd been exceptionally busy, what with balancing the odd hours of her hospital schedule and the considerable amount of time taken up with looking after Sasuke, and she knew from brief exchanges with Tsunade and Shizune that Neji had been off on a lot of missions recently. (Although, she thought as she struggled to hold back a grin, she was certainly getting to see _quite_ a bit of him at the moment, considering that he was sitting there half-naked.)

"Yes, there have been quite a lot of S-class missions to be carried out lately. In fact—" he flinched a bit as Sakura's probing fingers landed on a tender spot on his ribcage "—Tsunade-sama has already given me the briefing for my next mission. She gave me the information when I handed in my report for this last mission. And this time—" he winced again, a faint grimace crossing his face as the pink-haired medic located another sore area, then relaxed as she began applying her chakra to the injuries. "This time," he began again after a short pause, "I'm going to need a team." Neji shifted slightly, and when Sakura glanced up at him questioningly, he caught her clear green eyes with his pale ones. "I would like you to be a part of that team, Sakura-san."

_Huh?_ Sakura blinked, a bit surprised at the ANBU captain's words, but Neji went on before she could respond.

"I know that you haven't been out on a real mission in several months, and quite honestly, I believe that your considerable talents are largely wasted here." The kunoichi flushed a little at this, a small, pleased smile curling along her lips. "I have already requested you for the team, and Tsunade-sama approved of my choice. She agreed that you would be perfect for this mission, and also agreed that you needed to get out of Konoha for a while and face some real challenges again; however, she did insist that I ask you myself to see whether or not you were interested."

_**Hell yes **__I'm interested!_ she thought to herself, inwardly punching the air excitedly at the idea of going out on an actual mission again, though outwardly she maintained a calm, professional mien, for the most part in any case. "That would be wonderful, Neji-san," she said, unable to repress a sudden grin. "It really _has_ been too long since I've gone on an ANBU mission. I'd love to go!"

As she shifted her attention to his clavicle, the Hyuuga gave her a faint smile--one that honestly reached his eyes, causing the skin around them to crinkle just slightly--and Sakura, finding herself fighting back a deep blush, hurriedly focused on his collarbone with a little more intensity than was necessary.

But averting her eyes did nothing to help her deal with his voice, which he had allowed to drop to a low, rumbling murmur, and with her hands placed on his chest as they were, she could actually feel the words vibrating in his chest.

"Excellent. I'll be sure to get the specifics to you as soon as possible. I expect that it will be quite _enjoyable _to work with you again, Sakura." Again that unexpected simple use of her first name rather than her last. Surprised, she looked up from her glowing hands just in time to catch another of those small, odd smiles. "We leave in a week."

* * *

Sakura breathed deeply as she walked along the bustling streets, noting the hint of an autumn tang to cool air flavored with the rich scent of multiple types of foods. Dusk was always her favorite time to be out and about in Konoha—taking in the glow of the paper lanterns and the various smells filling the air, the bubbling laughter and the hum of contented conversation drifting out of restaurants and tea shops and spilling out into the street always ignited a comfortable warmth deep in her chest, a feeling of happiness, familiarity, and home. This was what she loved; this was what she worked so hard to protect.

Her shift had ended around five that evening, so she'd gone home for a hurried but much-needed shower and change of clothes before heading over to Sasuke's--it was her turn to check on him tonight, and he needed his weekly physical anyway. She'd taken the time to make some dumplings as well; while she wasn't the best cook, she wasn't awful either, and she liked to be sure that Sasuke was getting a hot meal every now and then. He could cook for himself, she knew, (actually he was probably a better cook than she was) but that didn't stop her from bringing things over for him, or even cooking there in his apartment some nights.

As she walked down the busy lantern-lit streets, her mind drifted back to her earlier conversation with Neji, and even the fact that she was on her way to confront a quite likely very sullen Uchiha Sasuke couldn't wipe the smile from her face or the take the extra bounce from her step as she made her way across town to his apartment.

It had been a while since she'd been this excited about a mission, but then again, it had also been a while since she'd been out on _any_ missions at all. Neji hadn't been able to tell her much about what they'd be doing, but he'd promised to send her a file with all the necessary information that evening. He _had_ told her that Naruto would be on the team as well, however, which nearly doubled her enthusiasm; any mission that required both the future Hokage _and_ the Hyuuga prodigy obviously had a decently high level of risk, which meant that it had the potential to be quite interesting. (And after months of nothing but hospital work and Sasuke-sitting, Sakura was more than ready for a challenge.)

…And the fact that Neji had complimented her so freely had been rather pleasant as well…

She was still smiling when she knocked on Sasuke's door, though it faded a bit when he scarcely glanced at her before turning and making his way back down the apartment's short hallway, leaving the door open for her. She'd been trying (with a great deal of success, surprisingly enough) not to think about anything and everything she'd confessed to Naruto last night, but the brief instant her eyes had met Sasuke's had been more than enough to bring it all back to the forefront of her mind.

Shutting the door behind her and stepping out of her shoes, she watched the Uchiha disappear around the corner into the apartment's main room, then drew in a long, slow breath. She could do this. She was one of Konoha's finest shinobi, and she could and would keep total and perfect control over her emotions, just as she had been trained to do.

Setting her jaw determinedly, she followed him down the short hallway.

"I brought you some dumplings," she said as she reached the main room. Sasuke, seated on one of the cushions surrounding the low table in the middle of the little room, didn't even look up from the book he was reading as Sakura set the faintly steaming container in front of him. "They're _gyōza,_ I know you like those," she added, dropping onto the cushion to Sasuke's left and pouring herself a cup of tea from the small kettle at the table's center.

Sasuke turned a page, pointedly ignoring both the dumplings and the person who'd brought them.

Years ago this might have discouraged Sakura enough to make her back off, but not anymore. "You should eat them while they're still warm," she continued relentlessly. "I know you hate it when your food gets cold—"

"Sakura."

Her mouth snapped shut automatically at the frigid note of warning in his voice.

"You've seen that I'm still in my apartment just like I should be, which is really all that you're required to do." Cold black eyes flicked up from the book to lock onto hers. "So why are you still here?"

"You're due for you weekly check-up," Sakura replied without missing a beat. "And since you're obviously not hungry, we can get to that right away." She gave him a small, tight-lipped smile. "Lose everything but your underwear," she said in a brisk, business-like tone, pulling a rather thick file and a clipboard from her bag.

Sasuke gave her an infinitely cool look before rising to do as she said.

Sakura had given most of her friends and peers physicals before, Sasuke himself included, so it wasn't really a big deal any more, though those physicals were usually conducted in the sterile, professional environment of the hospital and its white-walled, antiseptic-smelling rooms; giving one to _him_ and giving it _here_ had felt decidedly odd at first, though she was fairly used to it by now.

Still, it was always funny (and a little awkward) when she told him to strip.

She was not surprised to find that his boxers were a plain, unpatterned dark blue, though it amused her to see that the Uchiha mon had been embroidered near the bottom hem on the front of the left leg.

…Which brought her attention to the large bruise running down the inside of said leg. A quick survey of the rest of his body revealed similar injuries--mostly more bruises, though there were some cuts and scrapes as well.

"Who did you spar with today?" she asked thoughtfully as she placed her palms against his back, noting the impressive spread of dark purple-blue marks before removing them in a glow of blue.

He hadn't sparred with anyone today: it was supposed to have been Naruto's turn again, but after their encounter the previous night, Sasuke hadn't been surprised when the blonde had failed to show for a round two. Apparently he felt he'd beaten enough sense into Sasuke, at least for the time being.

"Does it matter?" he half-growled as the pink-haired medic bent to examine his wrist.

Sakura looked up, mildly surprised by the obvious tension in his voice, then returned to gently flexing his wrist back and forth, testing its mobility. "Not really," she conceded, finishing with the sprained joint and moving on to examine an unmistakably sandal-shaped bruise along the right side of Sasuke's abdomen.

"How have you been sleeping?" she asked a moment later, scribbling something down on her clipboard.

Better than he had in years.

"Fine."

"Any pain or discomfort that I should know about?"

She'd already seen to most of his injuries from the previous night's scuffle with Naruto, healing them completely and effortlessly.

"No."

"What about those nightmares you'd been having before…"

Nothing was like before, but that wasn't an entirely bad thing at all…

"No." A hint of irritation was creeping into his monosyllabic answers, and Sakura paused momentarily in her examination of his slightly swollen left ankle, glancing up at his face and wondering for the umpteenth time how he managed to convey so much while saying so little.

Sasuke noticed her pause, and his dark eyes narrowed slightly, the question _what?_ clearly expressed even without the word being spoken. The kunoichi just shook her head in response and focused on his ankle again, healing the hairline fracture she'd found before scooping up her clipboard full of notes and settling herself at the table to fill out all the necessary forms.

Sasuke, still wearing nothing but his boxers, watched her for a long moment, expressionless as ever, but feeling vaguely troubled nonetheless. "I don't need a future with you…" His gaze hardened into a sharp glare. "_Any_ of you."

Sakura met his glare steadily with one of her own. "Maybe not, but I know that you want one. Why else would you stay here?"

The Uchiha's mouth thinned visibly, but he said nothing, seemingly unable to answer her question; Sakura held his gaze for a long moment, then pointedly returned her attention to the papers in front of her.

"It's not like I have anywhere else to go," he muttered at last.

The pink-haired medic-nin didn't pause in filling the page with her neat handwriting, didn't even look up from her work.

"And there wouldn't be any point in running away. You and Naruto would just follow after me…bring me back whether I wanted to come or not."

Sakura slowly thumbed through the file for about a minute before finding what she was apparently looking for, returning to her patient's chart, and finishing off this week's report.

Changes or no, Sasuke was not used to being ignored by his old teammate, and it evoked an unexpectedly sharp pang of irritation and resentment. His scowl deepened as he snapped out, "Why do you _always_ have to get involved? My life is none of your business!"

But Sakura had often heard that phrase and similar variants of it from him before, and this time she would not hear it silently.

The flat of her hand slammed down on the table, which shuddered in an alarming fashion, but she spoke in a calm, measured voice that belied that action. "You're wrong. It _is _my business. It became my business ten years ago when we first became teammates, and I'll continue to 'get involved' and _make_ it my business whether you like it or not. You know why?" she said, giving him a sharp look as he started to interrupt; his mouth snapped shut, turning down in a sullen frown. "Because just like Naruto, I _still_ care about you, despite the fact that you're being a huge ass." She shook her head slowly, her tone gradually losing its steely edge. "We aren't going anywhere, Sasuke. And since you aren't either, as you so cleverly pointed out earlier, you'd better get used to having us around again." She hesitated, then said in a voice so low he had to strain to hear her, "I understand now what you've been through, and I want to be here to help you if I can."

Sasuke just stared at her, eyes cold and flat, unreadable as always. Then the slightest of smirks twisted one corner of his mouth upwards, and he snorted. "You're still just as annoying as ever."

She stiffened visibly at those words, the skin around her eyes tightening, but other than that she gave no evidence that the words had affected her: no shell-shocked or kicked-puppy looks this time.

Still faintly smirking, Sasuke leaned over and took her empty tea cup from in front of her; picking up his own as well, he headed to the sink to wash them. Sakura watched him silently, wishing, not for the first time, that she could read minds.

Halfway through cleaning the second cup, Sasuke suddenly paused.

"You said that you understand now what I went through."

Sakura allowed a moment to pass in silence before replying. "I do."

The Uchiha snorted and went back to cleaning the cup in his hand. "You can't _possibly_ understand what my life's been like—"

"Yes, I can," Sakura said softly, dropping her eyes to stare at the tabletop.

Before she knew it, Sasuke was standing beside her, grasping her arm and roughly jerking her to her feet, and Sakura found herself faced with the not-so-subtle threat of slowly, dangerously swirling Sharingan.

"You risked your life for me, I understand that, and even though I think it was a _stupid_ thing to do, I'm grateful…but that still doesn't change the fact that you know _nothing,"_ he ended with a hiss, his grip on her arm tightening painfully. "You think you _understand_ me now, just because you used some forbidden jutsu to get inside my head, invading my privacy just like always?"

She flinched a bit at that, but didn't drop her gaze. "It was the only way. I'm sorry…but I don't regret doing it." She met his eyes carefully. "And if I had to make the choice again, I would still do it, regardless of the consequences for you…or me."

The Uchiha blinked a bit at that, the intensity of his glare momentarily easing a bit. "What exactly did you see when you were in my head?" he demanded, his face darkening once more. "How much of…?"

Sakura looked up at him solemnly for a long moment, eyes probing. "Everything," she murmured at last.

Sasuke's hand came off her arm with a jerk, and he took a single, quick step backwards, staring down at the somber medic-nin with an expression akin to horror on his face.

"Everything?" he managed after a moment, his voice oddly hoarse.

Sakura hesitated, then gave a minute nod, watching him carefully.

Sasuke had gone completely still, standing rigidly, his already pale skin a sickly stark white, dark eyes wide with shock and brimming with (if Sakura didn't know better) something that looked suspiciously like fear. Suddenly he seemed to crumple in on himself, head bowing, shoulders slumping but somehow not losing a bit of the nervous tension running through them, stiffening his entire body and setting it humming, vibrating like the strings of a guitar, a discordant jangle of unsettled energy.

In an instant Sakura was on her feet, but before she could take even a single step towards him, the Uchiha's head snapped up, face twisted into a pained snarl.

_"Get out,"_ he ground out, the command so strangled as to be nearly unintelligible, and without another word he spun about and disappeared into the darkness of his bedroom.

Sakura stared after him for a moment, mind racing_. I…triggered something just now, I'm sure of it._ _The shock of rethinking everything I must have seen…everything I must _know_ now…must have set him off,_ she thought grimly. Almost before she knew it, she was crossing the room and slipping into his darkened bedroom after him. _This is due to my decision to use that jutsu—it's my fault. I have to make certain he's alright…_

Sasuke's tall, lean figure made a striking silhouette, a sharp-edged shadow set against the diffuse golden glow of the streetlights outside the window and deep star-struck indigo of the night sky. He was leaning heavily on the window frame, supporting most of his weight on tightly balled fists, head sunk low, his chin nearly touching his chest; as Sakura came alongside him, she saw that his eyes were closed tightly, his whole body shaking uncontrollably.

"I t-told y-y-you to l-leave," he gritted out, and she paused with a hand just inches from his shoulder. "I d-don't need…your h-help."

_ After all, you can only do so much for someone who _doesn't_ want your help.  
_  
The words sprung unbidden to her mind, and Sakura bit her lip, caught in a moment of indecision, but at that moment, Sasuke began shaking so hard his knees nearly buckled, and thinking went out the window: he needed help and she could give it, and that was that.

Without a second thought she slid her arms around him, easily supporting him; the Uchiha tensed in her embrace, and she took advantage of that moment of stunned surprise, using it to half-walk half-drag him towards his bed. He recovered quickly, however, and despite the fact that he was still trembling so violently he could scarcely stand, he made a half-hearted attempt to break away from her; Sakura's arms only tightened around his ribs in response.

She'd seen cases like this before, of course (it had post traumatic stress syndrome written all over it), but there wasn't really all that much she could do. At the hospital they'd sedated patients who were in significant distress, but she hadn't had the foresight to bring along any heavy anesthetics for what was supposed to be a routine check-up. The only thing she could think of was to get him comfortable and warm to try to help him relax; these sorts of things generally just had to be allowed to run their course.

"We've got to warm you up or you'll never stop that shaking," she muttered half under her breath. Sasuke gave a quiet, pained grunt in reply, but he stopped trying to push her away. Physically, at least.

"Leave me alone…why won't you just leave me alone?" he muttered, his body going limp as another shaking fit passed.

"I explained that to you already, Sasuke-kun," Sakura replied patiently, momentarily relinquishing one arm's grip on her former teammate to pull back the bedclothes, then easing them both down onto the cool sheets, tugging the blankets back into place and trying to ignore the fact that they were quite literally in bed together and that Sasuke was still wearing nothing but his boxers. Regardless of the situation, all that bare skin and well-toned muscle was still uncomfortably appealing; on impulse she snatched the comforter from the foot of the bed, wrapping it around Sasuke's bare shoulders before pulling him close again just as another wave of tremors hit.

_"I don't want you here. Get out! I don't need you or your stupid ideals!"_

And on it went, the same phrases repeated over and again with slight variances. But though his words were harsh, telling her to leave and that her presence was both unwanted and unnecessary, Uchiha Sasuke was still just a little bit too selfish to refuse such freely offered and badly needed comfort, and he made no move to pull away from her again. Really he nearly _gloried_ in her warmth--he'd been cold, so very cold standing by the window, but due to the shaking, he hadn't trusted his legs to carry him to the bed--and he unconsciously pressed closer to her to obtain as much of it as possible. He was far too proud to ask for this sort of help, but Sakura was offering, he wasn't asking, and that somehow made it alright to accept the heat of her presence and the warmth of her concern.

He'd never had someone to hold him through these attacks, and he found with a faint sense of consternation that his body was relaxing, calming much more quickly than usual; these fits generally kept him up most of the night, and yet, after little more than an hour or two, this one already seemed to be winding down…

He turned a calculating look towards the kunoichi at his side, thoughts turning back to the cloudy blur that comprised the majority of his memories of the past few months. There was a particular memory in there somewhere of an event similar to this, he was certain of it…

Another round of convulsions shook their way through him, but Sasuke wanted clarity, and he wanted it now. "You did this for me once before," he gritted out through clenched teeth. It was a statement, not a question, though it almost sounded nearer to an accusation.

"Yes," Sakura admitted quietly. "When you were in the hospital, and still very unstable. You...thought I was your mother, and didn't want me to leave you." She squared her jaw and glared at him defiantly, daring him to make something of it. "So I didn't."

Surprisingly enough, he couldn't seem to find a fittingly sarcastic response for that, though that might have had something to do with the fact that he was still in the midst of a particularly violent bout of shuddering at that moment; yet even after it subsided, silence of a grudgingly grateful nature reigned.

The pink-haired medic-nin quickly lost track of the time, focusing instead on her attempts to soothe her old teammate, but after what felt like hours, the intervals between trembling fits gradually lengthened, then dropped off completely, leaving the exhausted Uchiha drifting in and out of a light but entirely natural sleep.

Sakura smiled at the composed expression currently softening Sasuke's face, gently brushing dark hair away from one closed eye, relief and a comfortable, not-unfamiliar warmth spreading through her as she listened to his breathing even out, watching him carefully for signs of any further disturbances until she was satisfied that he was firmly in the clutches of sleep.

_Finally,_ she thought, she could go home and get some sleep herself. God knew she needed it after this.

As she started to pull away, however, she felt the muscles in Sasuke's arm contract slightly, almost imperceptibly, holding her in place. She paid it no mind, thinking it to be a mere reflex, and kept working to extract herself from the jumble of blankets and limbs until Sasuke's quiet voice filled the silence: "Sakura…you can stay if you want."

Sakura felt her eyes go wide, and she darted a quick glance up at Sasuke's face. He looked back at her calmly, eyes dark and expression apathetic as ever, and whatever it was that she was searching for wasn't there. Regardless of that, she couldn't resist giving him a huge smile before burying her face in his chest with a contented little sigh.

Sasuke stared down at the tangle of pink hair just inches from his face, blinking slowly and wondering whether he'd just made a mistake. But she was just so _warm_… Besides, he _had_ told Naruto he would be nicer, and kicking her out at this time of night would certainly not have been 'nice' by any means.

She might be taking this wrong, however…

"Sakura," he said after a few long moments.

He waited until he got the half-mumbled reply of "What is it, Sasuke-kun?" before continuing:

"Don't read into this…it doesn't mean anything. I'm just letting you stay because I don't want you walking home alone at this hour."

For an instant she stiffened in arms, the tell-tale reaction so brief that Sasuke could almost deny that it had happened at all.

Almost.

"I know that, Sasuke-kun," she murmured after a moment, and she pressed her face into his chest a little harder. "Don't worry…I know."

The Uchiha let out a faint sigh at her tone--one that he recognized all too well, one full of self-mockery and grudging resignation. But there was nothing he could say--nothing he _would_ say, rather--that would dispel either of those two emotions, so he settled for something simple, vague, and safe:

"…Thank you."

He felt her smile against his chest. "Good night, Sasuke-kun."

Silence settled over them again, and Sakura's breathing had fallen into a soft, steady pattern before Sasuke murmured his reply.

"…Good night, Sakura."

* * *

Naruto hopped easily from rooftop to rooftop, making his way across town to Sasuke's apartment—it was his morning to take the Uchiha heir to his daily sparring session. His mind wandered a bit as he sprinted along one of the many telephone wires crisscrossing the busy streets of Konoha, his thoughts settling on Sakura and her confession the night before last. The blonde frowned, a soft growl rumbling along his throat. _ I wonder if that bastard really meant it when he said he'd try being nicer._ His fists clenched as his frown deepened. _He'd better._

A few moments later, he'd reached the apartment complex. He paused on an adjacent building long enough to make sure Sasuke's bedroom window was open; finding that it was, he leapt forward once more. Forget the stairs and waiting for the Uchiha bastard to open the door--he was just going to pop in the window, which would quite likely annoy his taciturn best friend, but the blonde knew he probably wouldn't stay angry too long; unlike Sakura, Sasuke didn't care if Naruto saw him in a towel, and certainly wouldn't hit him for it.

He landed on the empty windowsill with scarcely a sound, then had a brief battle with the thick curtains that had suddenly blown outwards to wrap themselves around him, obscuring his vision in the process. It was a fight that he soon won (though not without nearly pulling down the curtain rod in the process), but he finally succeeded in freeing himself and pushing the draperies aside to look into the room.

Taking in the scene before him, Naruto's jaw dropped, and he nearly toppled backwards out the window in surprise:

Sasuke was stretched out on his back, wearing only his boxers, surrounded by a jumbled mess of blankets. And there, with her front pressed firmly against Sasuke's side and with her head resting on his chest, was Sakura. Her hair was falling in her face, the little bit of makeup she wore was a slightly smeared, and her clothes were rumpled (she was still fully clothed, Naruto noted belatedly), but the small, utterly satisfied smile gently curling along her lips was nothing short of beautiful. Her arms were around her old teammate, that was no surprise; the fact that Sasuke's arm was wrapped around her shoulders, holding her close, however, was.

Naruto just stared, but despite his continued gaze, the stunned feeling buzzing around in his brain didn't seem inclined towards abating any time soon. He shook his head slowly as he turned and leaped away across the rooftops again.

Glad as he was that the Uchiha was actually making some sort of effort, the blonde couldn't help but think that perhaps Sasuke might've taken the 'being nicer' thing…just a _bit_ too far.


	12. Which Is Full Of Gossip

Sakura was beginning to realize that waking up with Uchiha Sasuke was never going to be quite what she expected.

Years ago, her childhood daydreams had been full of visions of waking up to gaze at him lovingly while he slept, perhaps brushing a hand through his fine, bed-mussed, but somehow still spiky hair. He would awaken gradually beneath her gentle touch, then give her a soft, heart-melting smile and pull her to him, holding her close and kissing her passionately, whispering sweet little endearments and running his fingers through her hair.

Now that she was older and decidedly more worldly, those revoltingly saccharine flights of fancy had undergone some drastic changes: she had been hoping for slipping away unnoticed while Sasuke slept, as she had that time back in the hospital.

Unfortunately that hope was dashed the instant she opened heavy-lidded, sleep-blurred eyes to find him staring straight at her. There was no emotion whatsoever in that gaze--not gratitude, not pleasure, and certainly not anything that she would call affection--but there was no anger or reproach or disgust either. Just a curious sort of calm, a tolerant, tranquil contentment.

Her eyes widened and she drew in a sharp, quiet half-breath on the realization that her body was flush with his, the side of his hip digging into her abdomen, her chest pressed flat against his ribs, her head resting on his shoulder.

For a long moment she simply returned his stare, dazed, then she scrambled almost comically to untangle herself from him. As she pulled away, Sakura found to her mild surprise that his arm was wrapped around her shoulders, and that he didn't move it until she had made it clear that she wanted to get up.

_Dammit, I'm going to be late,_ she thought as she hurriedly attempted to straighten her clothing (a largely hopeless endeavor) and ran a hand through her hair. She was scheduled for a double shift at the hospital that began at seven, which left her about twenty minutes total to gather up her things, get home, and get ready; she certainly couldn't go in looking like _this._

Knowing how it would look if she left Sasuke's apartment at this hour in her noticeably rumpled clothing, Sakura opted to teleport home; she was half-naked and halfway to the shower before the smoke had cleared. Despite the fact that Tsunade had been less than pleased the last time she had been late for a long shift, Sakura couldn't stop her mind from settling on thoughts of Sasuke as she stepped into the steaming-hot shower.

She hadn't missed the fact that, as she'd gotten up to go, his eyes had followed her every move silently, though he made no attempt to stop her from leaving and hadn't said a word as she slipped out of his room to grab her shoes and her bag. Closing her eyes, she rested her head against the cool shower tiles, willing herself to think of something, anything other than how wonderful, how perfectly _right_ it had felt to wake up to find her body entwined with his; even now she still couldn't quite get the familiar, faintly musky scent of his apartment, his sheets, his skin, out of her nose…

_ "Don't read into this…it doesn't mean anything."_

_That _memory brought her back to herself somewhat, like a splash of cold water in the face, and kept replaying itself insistently over and over in her head. He hadn't meant to hurt her, that much had been obvious by the hollow ring of bravado in his tone, but to be honest, those words had stung. You couldn't say 'thanks for throwing yourself at me yet again, but no thanks, still not interested' much more clearly than that.

Never mind the fact that she really _hadn't_ been throwing herself at him; his health and emotional welfare had been her only concerns last night, and all other thoughts and desires had taken an immediate backseat to the fact that one of her best friends (and current patient and old teammate _and_ first love) had been experiencing a small-scale mental breakdown.

Shaking her head, Sakura turned the faucet off with a sharp jerk and attacked the task of toweling her hair dry with a vengeance. According to the clock on the wall, it was 6:54 already, and she still had to get something to eat—she knew from experience that she might not get a chance for anything else until late that night.

It turned out that she needn't have worried; Tsunade herself was over half an hour late due to a particularly nasty hangover, and while the sheer length of the double shift made it tiring, it went about as smoothly as possible. Most of her time was spent doing routine checks on and administering a combination of medicines and medical ninjutsu to various inpatients, though she also ended up spending a few hours in the lab and in the clinic. Fortunately there was only one critically injured patient brought into the emergency room--a newly-promoted chuunin who'd seriously botched a jounin-level wind element jutsu--and Sakura already had things well under control by the time Tsunade had arrived. The Hokage had complimented her work, and had hinted at possibly sending her on an extended medical mission to Suna in the near future ("But only if you're interested, of course; the details are still a bit sketchy anyway, so don't worry about making a decision just yet").

Other than Ino, who'd dropped by to bring her some lunch, the only person from her age group that she saw all day was Neji, who was making the necessary follow-up visit for his injuries from the day before. Sakura, remembering his rather flattering comments during their previous encounter, had greeted him with her usual bright smile and a hint of a blush, both of which were met with a strange sort of indifference; in fact, his demeanor on the whole was cool and rather standoffish, which the pink-haired medic-nin found a bit bewildering, though she wrote it off to lack of sleep and her own imagination. She was too busy at the moment to concern herself with personal matters; even thoughts about the previous night hadn't crossed her mind more than once or twice since she'd arrived at the hospital that morning.

Still, after her shift ended and she'd finished filling out and filing all the necessary paper work (which, thanks to the sloppy work of one or more interns and her own perfectionist mindset, took nearly four hours all told), it was all she could do to stumble home, take another quick shower, and collapse into bed.

* * *

There were three ways that Sakura particularly disliked being awakened.

The first was by fighting of any kind. Yelling matches and half-playful scuffles between teammates that had gotten out of hand were both less-than-pleasant ways of being roused from sleep, though of course real life-and-death situations were the worst to wake up to, something she'd learned on one of her first missions as a jounin.

The second involved water, and had often been employed by Kakashi during their old Team Seven missions back in the day; Naruto, and sometimes even Sasuke, had suffered right along with her through what she had thought of as their team leader's rather aggressive version of Chinese water torture. (Not that it hadn't been effective, of course—as if _any__one_ could sleep through his Water Dragon Missile Technique.)

The last was only ever done by two people, Ino and Naruto, and it involved early mornings, as well as a lot of yelling and pounding on her front door.

"SAAAAKUUUURAAAA! I OPEN YOU TO ORDER THIS DOOR _IMMEDIATELY!"_

The pink-haired kunoichi blinked slowly, staring up at her bedroom ceiling and wondering if she'd somehow gotten drunk without knowing it.

_It's either that, or Ino just isn't making sense…hmm, not so unlikely._

With a groan she rolled sideways out of bed and stumbled her way to the front door, fumbling with the lock before slowly swinging the door open to reveal her former rival and best friend since childhood. "What is it, Ino?" she grumbled, squinting at the intensity of the bright sunlight. She wondered what time it was--it couldn't be later than eight or nine, and she'd gotten home from her shift at the hospital at five-thirty, meaning she'd only been asleep for about two or three hours…

_This had better be good, pig!_ she growled inwardly as Ino pushed her way past Sakura, one hand latching onto the crook of the groggy medic-nin's arm and dragging her into the kitchen before abruptly turning on her.

"Oh my GOD, Sakura, how could you not TELL me?"

The pink-haired girl blinked slowly, her face blank with confusion.

It all made sense now: apparently _Ino_ was the one who was drunk.

A sudden frown turned the shorter girl's mouth sharply downwards. "What the hell are you talking about?" Sakura growled, sounding far more like Sasuke than she cared to think about.

Ino snorted, rolling her eyes a bit before posting her hands on her hips and giving her pink-haired friend a skeptical look. "Cute, Forehead, but you can drop the act. We both know that you've been sleeping with Sasuke, so why pretend otherwise?"

Sakura felt her eyes go wide, and she managed to keep her jaw from dropping only by sheer force of will. "Wha—how did you—"

"Come _on,_ Sakura, you can't be THAT surprised. Half the village must know by now."

Ah, only half the village. Well. Apparently Naruto had actually managed to keep his mouth shut about something for almost an entire day. That _had_ to be a new record.

It had to have been Naruto, of that much she was fairly certain; no one else would have been likely to drop by Sasuke's apartment before seven in the morning, and of course the blonde would have seen them in bed together. Looking back, Sakura felt more than a little chagrined that she hadn't taken that possibility into consideration, though she conceded that keeping up appearances had not been very high on her list of priorities the night before last.

Sakura bit back a groan as she remembered with sudden clarity her previous day at work. The increased levels of whispering around her, the furtive glances that she'd been too busy to mind for the most part, the slightly mistrustful or jealous looks various patients and hospital staff alike had given her…it was so obvious now that she thought about it.

…And then she suddenly went cold on recalling Neji's icy disregard. She'd thought she was just imagining it at the time, but now…well, it was pretty clear which half of the village he was part of.

An even worse thought followed that one—what if Sasuke himself heard the rumors? It was true that he'd allowed her to comfort him, to stay with him, and that he hadn't seemed to mind it all in the end, but there had been nothing even vaguely romantic about any of it. _**Except for the way you were tangled up with him when you first woke up…and how his arm was around your shoulders, holding you even closer… **_Inner Sakura quipped with a snicker, though that thought was pushed away hard; this was NOT the time for this sort of thing. She had to do some damage control before Sasuke found out about all this. What if he was so disgusted by the very idea that he refused to have anything to do with her ever again?

She glanced up at Ino, who was looking at her expectantly.

"…I don't suppose you'll believe me if I deny it?"

Surprisingly enough, the blonde shrugged. "I might. So _are_ you sleeping with him?"

"No!"

"…You're right, I don't think I believe you."

Sakura heaved a sigh. "Didn't think so…so what has everyone been saying?" she asked, her tone suggesting that she didn't really want to know, but knew it would probably be best if she did.

"That this has been most likely going on for a while—ever since he was put under house arrest, though some people think you might've taken advantage of the fact that he was chained up in that prison cell and—"

"_Ino!"_

"_Aaaanyway,"_ the blonde drawled with a teasing grin, "no one's really surprised—you _have_ been going places with him a lot lately, and it's not like you've been seeing anyone recently, so of course people are going to assume that you're _with_ him. It's just, you were the Hokage's apprentice, and you're usually so professional that no one had really thought about it that way—"

"—Until Naruto opened his big mouth," Sakura interjected, her voice strangely low and quiet.

Ino looked a bit surprised at that. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

Sakura didn't reply; she was already heading out the front door, snatching up her shuriken holster, her medic-nin's pouch, and of course her leather gloves on the way out, stepping into a pair of old flat-bottomed sandals and pulling her long hair back in a quick, careless ponytail as she went, not caring a whit about the smudges of yesterday's make-up around her eyes or the fact that she was dressed in nothing but a plain white t-shirt and some paint-stained shorts. She was too busy thinking to care about any of that.

Sakura liked to make lists. She made them all the time, even though she really didn't have to--her memory was good enough that she didn't need to write things down. Had she made one up at that moment, however, her list might have looked something like this:

1. Kill Naruto.

2. Interrogate Hinata to find out exactly _what_ the (recently late) fox-faced blonde had said to Neji concerning the rumors about herself and Sasuke.

3. Find Neji and do some damage control.

4. Pick up dry-cleaning from the laundromat.

Sakura smiled grimly. She could feel her fingers itching to get started with the first task on her to-do list.

* * *

"_NAAAAARUUUUUTOOOOO!"_

The tall blonde winced visibly, then looked about desperately for a suitable hiding place. There was an all-too-recognizable note of fury in Sakura's voice that gave him a sudden chill, as if someone had just stepped on his grave…and judging from her tone of voice, if Sakura caught him, he would most likely be heading for that grave much sooner than he had planned.

It was time for a quick_ henge no jutsu…  
_

_And with a disguise like this one,_ he thought with an unexpectedly high-pitched giggle,_ there's no way she'll EVER find me!_

* * *

After pummeling a decidedly blonde and foxy-looking shop sign back into its regular Naruto-shaped form, Sakura took two large fistfuls of his uniform and pulled him up from his slump against the fence he'd finally come to rest against, putting her face just inches from his, and growled in a sickly sweet voice, "Why, hello Naruto. Care to explain just who you're hiding from?"

Naruto gulped audibly but somehow still managed a shaky smile. "H-hi, Sakura-chan…ah, I, uh, I wasn't hiding from anyone, really…" He suddenly blinked and eyed her with concern (though he still looked more than slightly unsettled by her harsh grip on his shirtfront). "Is—is something wrong?"

She clenched her jaw, closing her eyes and forcing herself to count to ten.

"What did I do, Sakura-chan?"

At that her eyes snapped open; her jaw remained clenched, but she forced her mouth into a wide, obviously fake smile.

Naruto stared at her with unconcealed horror; he'd seen this expression before, and it had always signaled that someone was in _serious_ trouble with the pink-haired kunoichi. It was just his luck that right now, that someone was himself.

"What did you do? You mean _besides_ ruining my reputation and spreading FALSE rumors about what's going on between Sasuke-kun and me? Nothing! Absolutely _NOTHING!"_ She shook him hard, hitting the back of his head against the fence as she did so. "How many people did you tell about me spending the night at Sasuke's apartment?"

"N-n-no one!" he insisted, his arms flailing uselessly at his sides. "I didn't tell anyone, I swear!"

Doubt flickered across the medic-nin's face as she reluctantly released her hold on him, allowing him to slump back down against the base of the fence. "You didn't? Then…" _ That would mean that it had to be Sasuke-kun…no one else knew about it. But Ino said…and Sasuke-kun wouldn't…_

"Oh!" Naruto froze in gingerly rubbing the back of his head, blue eyes flying wide in sudden recollection. "Well, actually, I guess I _did_ tell a couple people…but I didn't think it would cause any problems!"

Sakura's jaw dropped. "Are you crazy?" she demanded, then realized what a stupid question that was, considering who she was talking to. "How many people did you tell?"

"Oh, not all that many, really!" Naruto said quickly, giving a nervous little laugh as Sakura cracked her knuckles and gave him a _'tell-me-EXACTLY-who-or-I'll-kick-your-ass-to-Suna'_ glare. "Just Sai and Shikamaru. And Hinata-chan, of course."

The pink-haired girl raised an eyebrow, which somehow did nothing to lessen the intensity of her glare. "Oh, really? Just those three?"

Naruto nodded desperately.

"Then how did _Ino_ know?"

The blonde blanched, then scratched the back of his head anxiously. "Ah…eh-heh-heh-heh…well, y'see, Ino found out on accident…when I told Shikamaru…"

"How…" Her hands, he found with some apprehension, had re-attached themselves to his shirtfront, and she was slowly twisting them, drawing the collar of his shirt uncomfortably tight "…do you find something out on _accident?"_

"W-well, she was coming to get Shikamaru because he'd promised to eat lunch with her and Chouji, and I didn't realize that she was standing behind me until—"

"I get it," she said, cutting him off and releasing him once more. She heaved a heavy sigh. _Sasuke-kun isn't going to like this at all._

"Sakura-chan?"

Naruto was looking up at her with concern once again, so she shook her head. "It's nothing. It can't be helped, I guess," she said, giving the blonde a faint, rather lopsided smile.

Naruto looked up at her apologetically. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan…"

She snorted and flicked the end of his nose. "You should be."

He rubbed his nose and grinned up at her sheepishly for a moment, then suddenly sobered and averted his eyes. "Oh yeah, I think Neji knows, too."

Again Sakura felt as if something had suddenly frozen inside her. Whatever it was, it also made swallowing a lot more difficult than usual. "Ah. Really." She'd figured as much, what with how he'd given her the cold shoulder in the hospital yesterday, but having it confirmed…

"Yeah…I think he overheard when I told Hinata-chan."

"Well, what's done is done," she said lightly as she reached down to help Naruto back to his feet…then promptly punched him in the gut--_hard._

After retracting her fist from the second belly button she'd just given him, Sakura turned on her heel and stalked off to find one Hyuuga Neji.

It was time for him to make good on a promise.

* * *

He was angry. That much was obvious from the way he sitting, even more rigidly than usual, at the base of the same large tree in the same open field that she'd found him in several times before. It was made even more obvious when he pointedly continued to ignore her as she came to a stop in front of him, though his typically emotionless face wasn't quite as emotionless as usual: his lips were pressed together in a thin line, his jaw was clenched, his brow slightly furrowed--subtle, minute changes that few would notice unless they were familiar with the Hyuuga genius. Which, having been a regular member of his ANBU cell at one time, Sakura was.

For a long while she just stood there, looking down at him; Neji didn't so much as twitch beneath her stare. With a quiet sigh, she finally sat as well, not even pretending to attempt meditation this time, sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest instead. She'd taken out most of her initial anger on Naruto (who, as the rumor's originator, was definitely deserving of it); now she just felt awkward and embarrassed and not at all sure of what to say.

"Look," she said at last, fighting not to stumble over the words, "I'm not sure exactly what you've heard, but there's nothing going on between Sasuke-kun and me—"

She stopped instantly on realizing that his eyes had snapped open, and gulped a bit at the harsh expression on his face. She'd forgotten how scary Neji was when he was angry.

_Naruto, you idiot, this is ALL your fault!_

"…It's not what it looked like," she went on, the words sounding weak even to her, wondering in the back of her mind why it felt so important that he be made to believe them. "Sasuke and I aren't…we aren't dating or anything like that. People just got the wrong impression about things, that's all."

His expression went from frigid to absolutely arctic. "Of course. Being found sleeping with someone is always a perfect indicator that nothing is going on between you. Such an _easy_ thing to misinterpret." Sarcasm laced his voice thickly, and Sakura found herself bristling in response.

"That's not what was supposed to happen!" she said, scarcely keeping her reply from coming out as a growl.

"So you didn't _intend_ to sleep with him, it was just an impulsive, spur-of-the-moment fling? Oh yes, that's a definite improvement."

Abruptly Sakura stood, throwing a kunai into the ground between Neji and herself with a quick flick of her wrist.

"_Get up."_

He glanced at the kunai embedded in the dirt scarcely an inch from his knee before giving her an arch look. "Why?"

"I'm challenging you," she said matter-of-factly, tugging on the cuff of one black glove with slow, exaggerated deliberation. "You promised me a match sometime, didn't you? Well, I want it now, so come on. Get up and fight me."

The Hyuuga prodigy stared up at her through narrowed eyes for a long moment; then he wordlessly wrenched the kunai from the ground (it took him a good bit more effort than one would normally expect, Sakura was pleased to note) and stood as well, giving her a slight nod, calmly accepting her challenge.

* * *

It was in all honesty a very even match. Sakura would put a crater between herself and Neji every time he tried to get in close to use the _Jūken_, but at the same time, being forced to keep her distance from him didn't allow her to use her incredible strength to its full potential; genjutsu were also largely useless against the Hyuuga prodigy, and she didn't waste her chakra attempting to use any, and neither shinobi had their ANBU-issue katana, so at first the fight was little more than a standoff.

Thus, it surprised both of them a little when Neji finally managed to close with her enough to use _Hakke Rokujūyon Shō_; Sakura winced and stumbled backwards beneath the assault at first, but before he was halfway done with his attack, she managed to draw back her fist and land a solid, chakra-laden blow on his jaw, throwing the surprised Hyuuga backwards to slam hard against a tree trunk. She was in too much pain from his attack to truly follow up on her own though, merely standing and panting, trying to regain her breath and keep her chakra circulating correctly, one arm wrapped around her midsection, the other still clenched firmly in a ready fist.

After a moment he came at her again, and this time she let him, matching him blow for blow as they fought purely with taijutsu, without the aid of _kekkei genkai_ or chakra-enhanced strength. In this they were evenly matched as well, Sakura making up what she lacked in natural strength with agility and speed, and the clearing was silent but for the sounds of hand-to-hand combat and their steadily harsher breathing.

Both gave a slight start when at long last Sakura broke the silence: "I know that you think your reasoning is flawless, so this'll be news to you: you're wrong." She suddenly stepped back, dropping her fists limply to her sides, bowing her head just slightly. "There's nothing going on between Sasuke and me," she repeated, her voice soft and sad. "He doesn't think of me that way…and I don't think he ever will."

Neji, surprised by the abrupt change in her stance, fell back as well, studying her face carefully; judging by her eye movements, she was telling the truth…

The pink-haired medic-nin looked up, clearly embarrassed at her rather emotional admission. "I guess I just have trouble letting things go, that's all," she said, her tone bright, but Neji didn't miss that slightest of wavers in her voice.

Slowly he too eased out of his fighting stance, his own eyes softening a fraction as he studied the kunoichi standing before him.

Surprisingly enough, Neji was the first to break that second stretch of silence.

"At breakfast this morning, Hinata-sama mentioned that she wanted to see you." His glare relaxed as the Byakugan slowly melted away, and he gave her the trace of a smile. "It would honor us both greatly if you would accompany me back to the Hyuuga compound for tea."

A look of relief broke across Sakura's face, and she nodded eagerly. "I'd love to, Neji-san," she said, and fell into step beside him, thankful that things were all right between them once again.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke could have not have cared less about the sudden buzz surrounding him when Naruto (who was moving a bit gingerly for some reason) showed up to take him out for dinner and a walk around Konoha. Girls had constantly giggled and whispered behind his back when he was a child, and the adults had done their share of gossiping as well, always all about how it was a _such_ a shame, just _terrible,_ what had happened to the Uchiha clan, and how he was the sole survivor.

The content of these new rumors didn't concern him either. Ever since his return, the gossip had oftentimes concerned his possible relationship with Sakura, so this was nothing really out of the ordinary. Still, there was significantly more whispering than usual today.

Not that this was unexpected, really.

He had awakened the instant Naruto had landed on his windowsill the previous morning (only an extremely tired shinobi, or one whose defenses were completely down, could have slept through all the noise the blonde had made during his little scuffle with the curtains), and Sasuke had presumed that talk of this sort would circulate--it _was _Naruto, after all, and older or not, when had that blonde idiot ever been able to keep his mouth closed when he should?

The Uchiha shot a flat glare at a matronly old shopkeeper and the customer she'd started whispering to as he passed; both froze at being so obviously caught out, then hastily (and silently) went about their business, the customer nearly dropping her change as she rushed off, the shopkeeper picking up her sweeping with a great deal more enthusiasm than before.

Sasuke just snorted and shrugged it off, shoving his hands into his pockets and pretending to ignore Naruto's regular babbling conversation as they headed back to his apartment, trying to keep his mind from straying back to thoughts of that night, and how pleasant it had been to hold someone.


	13. Which Covers The Mission

Sakura tilted her glass, admiring the way the amber liquid inside seemed to flicker with an inner fire at the movement. She smiled faintly, the dim reflection of her own face shining back at her from the surface of her drink, then casually turned around on her barstool, leaning back against the counter as she surveyed the room, taking care not to let her eyes linger anywhere for too long.

_Tsukigamori_ was a high-class establishment, more like a swanky nightclub than a bar, but it still stank of cigarette smoke, spilled alcohol, and cheap perfume, and while the majority of the clientele was dressed in formal evening attire, there were still a few rougher-looking characters scattered here and there. Sakura leaned a bit closer to Neji as one of them lumbered by--normally she wouldn't have been the least bit intimidated by any of the patrons, regardless of their size, but at the moment she was posing as a normal girl from an escort service, and Neji's companion for the evening. She couldn't very well start throwing people around without raising the suspicions of everyone in the place, and at the moment, drawing attention to themselves was the last thing they wanted.

Their current mission was to recover some jewelry for Lady Shijimi, the wife of the ruler of the Land of Fire, and while that sounded easy enough, the truth of the matter left Sakura wishing the woman had just stuck to losing her cat for genin teams to retrieve. Apparently the items in question were important family heirlooms, and the theft had been carried out by one of the largest (and roughest) criminal organizations currently active in the Land of Fire. It hadn't taken more than a few days for Konoha's wide-spread intelligence agencies to turn up some interesting new information: the thieves were planning on passing off the jewelry to another criminal organization and receiving cash, mutual trust, and loyalty in return.

Taken separately, neither gang was really much of a threat to Konoha, and even together a few squads of ANBU could have dealt with them easily, but Tsunade had felt that it was better to simply avoid conflict with them altogether; instead, a small three-man team would slip in and steal the jewelry back, leaving the both gangs thinking that the other side wasn't keeping their part of the deal. The resulting schism would likely prevent them from forming a potentially dangerous alliance, so long as Konoha remained above suspicion (i.e. Sakura's team didn't get caught in the act of lifting the goods).

The transaction was set to take place at _Tsukigamori, _a certain high-class bar practically straddling the border to Waterfall Country, and the three-man team had dressed themselves accordingly:

Sakura was wearing a slinky sequined dress of deep red, her long pink hair dyed a plain but elegant black and pinned up in a series of intricate twists with several orate hair combs. Naruto had dyed his hair also, and it should have been black as well, but it had ended up being more of a burnt-looking brown; whether that was because of his original hair color, or just incorrect application of the dye Sakura wasn't certain, though considering that it was _Naruto…_ Neji's natural hair colour was unremarkable, at least, and though his ghostly pale eyes were a bit of a problem, they were nothing that a quick _henge_ or some dark-tinted glasses didn't easily hide. The curse seal on his forehead was a similar issue, but it was still kept wrapped in the customary bandages, and the fedora he wore pulled low over his eyes concealed those.

"You look like a gangster, Neji!" Naruto had laughed when he'd first seen the composed Hyuuga's disguise, and Sakura had had to agree. "Or an undercover agent, like a detective or something!" Neji had promptly removed the long trenchcoat he'd been wearing and changed into a sports jacket instead, which worked in that it would certainly draw less attention; regardless, Sakura still thought he looked a lot like a mob boss (it had to be the hat, she'd decided, but Neji had been adamant in his refusal to part with it).

They'd split up almost immediately on leaving Konoha, Naruto going well out of his way to come at their target city from the opposite side. Sakura and Neji had traveled by train most of the way, in keeping with their cover story of a young, successful business man taking a vacation with the lovely escort arranged for him by his company; they had hotel reservations and everything--staying in a penthouse suite for a few days while you staked out a location wasn't a bad job at all.

Sakura turned a casual glance down the bar, allowing her gaze to wander over the assorted figures lined up at the counter, some sitting hunched forward on their stools, others chatting to the people beside them, a few leaning back against the counter as she was. After reassuring herself that Naruto had taken up his appointed lookout position across the room (she'd watched him enter from the corner of her eye, glanced over at him, then had looked away with a haughty sniff when he'd grinned and given her a bawdy wink), she leaned towards Neji, a seductive smile curling along her lips as she breathed into his ear, "He's here. Found them yet?"

Neji responded to her supposed proposition by slipping a hand over to rest on her thigh, turning his head just slightly to murmur, "Yes. To your left. Far back corner."

Her face largely hidden by the collar of Neji's jacket and the shadow cast by his hat, Sakura allowed herself a long, careful look at the opposition, and had to bite back a chuckle: they were, to a man, almost laughably stereotypical in their "street thugs on the rise" appearance. But then again, this plan wouldn't've worked if they'd been expecting their targets to be _that_ much of a challenge. There wasn't the barest hint of chakra in the lot, so she ducked her head a bit more, muttering into Neji's shoulder. "Check for the package?"

Neji gave a minute nod, the brim of his hat and his dark glasses hiding the activated Byakugan; even Sakura, who was so close that she was nearly sitting in his lap, had trouble seeing them. A moment later he gave another brief nod--the disreputable group in the corner had the jewelry alright--the chakra-puffed veins fading away, and a gentle crease formed between his eyebrows instead as his forehead, largely hidden beneath his hat, wrinkled in thought. "Now all we need is a distraction."

He turned his head towards Naruto, who had casually crossed the room to lounge at the bar beside him, though he hadn't acknowledged him any more than would a complete stranger. "Go stand over there for a minute," he said quietly, covering his words with a slow, lingering drink and quickly darting his eyes sideways to indicate a spot across the room, very close to the table where their targets were entrenched.

Naruto's eyebrows rose slightly in curiosity, but he did as the Hyuuga said, scooping up his drink and wandering through the crush of people to stand beside a leggy brunette whose outfit showed a lot more skin than it covered.

Sakura let out a quiet gasp as Neji slid down the bar a bit and lightly tapped a very large, very drunk-looking man on the shoulder.

"Whaddya want?" he slurred, shooting Neji an unfocused glare.

"Just doing you a favor, pal," the Hyuuga said, wincing inwardly at both the man's breath and his own use of the word "pal". He turned his head to look over at Naruto, who was now openly flirting with the dark-haired woman, and his eyes narrowed a bit. "That guy over there is hitting on your girlfriend."

The intoxicated man stiffened visibly, then lurched to his feet with a low growl, half-stumbling across the room towards the oblivious Naruto, clumsily rolling up his shirtsleeves as he went.

"Well, that takes care of that," Neji said, sounding very satisfied as he turned back to Sakura. Noting her shocked expression, he gave her a small, serene smile. "Come on. We've got about thirty seconds to get closer to our target."

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?"

Sakura, who'd just changed into her standard jounin attire once again now that they were several dozen kilometers away from the little border town, thumped the blonde on the head. "Stop yelling, idiot! Someone might be following us, and you're giving away our position!"

Naruto growled and rubbed his head, then hissed more quietly, "Neji! Why did you send that huge guy over there to hit me?"

The Hyuuga sighed. "We needed a diversion, and a bar fight was the best I could come up with on short notice." He smirked. "Besides, it's not like he _hurt_ you—"

"DIDN'T HURT ME?"

"I told you to _shut up!"_ Sakura hissed urgently, smacking him again and valiantly resisting the impulse to throttle him.

"HE PUNCHED ME THROUGH THE FRICKIN' WINDOW!"

"Yes, we noticed that," Neji said dryly. "As did nearly the entire bar. But you're fine, and Sakura and I accomplished the mission objective. Way to take one for the team, Naruto."

Naruto scowled over at him. "That was _totally_ just revenge for what happened during our first chuunin exam, wasn't it?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," the Hyuuga prodigy replied airily, though the slight quirk of his lips belied his words.

Naruto's jaw dropped. "You're _serious?_ Th-that was _ten years ago!_ Let it go already!"

"Naruto, hold still a second while I heal that cut…"

"Ah, don't worry about it Sakura-chan, I heal fast enough as it is." The Kyuubi container grinned down at her widely. "Don't waste your chakra on me, you might need it for something important!"

"But you _are _important," she countered half-playfully, knowing that he was right about his self-healing abilities but still wanting to help regardless. "At least let me check to make sure there's no glass in the wound…"

He giggled boyishly and held his arm out for her, clearly humoring her. "Alright Sakura-chaaaan…" He tossed a wink over at the silently observing Neji. "She just can't keep her hands off me, ne?"

Neji let out a quiet chuckle as he watched a laughing Naruto fend off yet another punch from a grinning Sakura. Humbling as it had been, sometimes he was very glad that he'd lost that fight against Naruto during their first chuunin exam all those years ago: it had felt good to let go of the old bitterness and just smile.

"Come on," he said after a few more minutes had passed. "Break's over. We have to make it at least a third of the way back to Konoha tonight. We've still got a long way to go."

As she leapt off into the trees after her teammates, Sakura's thoughts brushed across the subject of her other teammate. Sasuke had still been on probation when she, Naruto, and Neji had left to go on their mission, though due to his excellent behavior, his movement was less restricted; no longer under house arrest, he was allowed to wander at will through the Village, though he was still under ANBU surveillance and was not permitted to leave Konoha for any reason whatsoever, save to go on missions with other Leaf nin.

It was just for a few days, she knew, but Sakura couldn't help but wonder how he was doing without either Naruto or herself there to force him to be at least somewhat social. _He's probably relieved to finally have some peace and quiet,_ she thought to herself somewhat glumly, then shook her head, focusing her full attention on the task at hand.

* * *

A few hours later Neji signaled for another stop. "We made good time, so we can rest here for a few hours. There's a fairly decent-sized stream roughly one hundred meters ahead if either of you care to wash the dye out of your hair."

"Finally!" Naruto exclaimed, scratching furiously at his scalp as he disappeared into the trees. "This stuff is really makin' my head itch!"

"That's funny," Sakura quipped, following close behind, a bottle of shampoo and a hairbrush in hand. "I would have thought that dye would kill all the fleas. Maybe you _did_ put it in wrong."

"Oh, har har…"

Neji shook his head at their banter, smiling ever so slightly to himself as he set up the kettle to make some tea. He'd just poured himself a cup when Naruto came wandering back, half-naked and rubbing his once again golden-blonde shock of hair dry with what looked suspiciously like Sakura's special-issue jounin medic's vest. This was soon confirmed by an angry growl from the direction of the stream.

"_Uzumaki Naruto,_ you had _better_ hang that up to dry, and you'd better hope it's not still wet in the morning, or I'm gonna be punting your ass the rest of the way home, future Hokage or not."

The fox-faced blonde just snickered at the threat, carelessly draping the white garment over a nearby tree branch before eagerly accepting the proffered cup of tea from Neji. In a heartbeat he'd downed the whole thing, as well as a couple onigiri he'd had in his pack, and was curling up with his back to the little fire; in a few minutes his breathing had evened out, and after a few more, he was solidly snoring.

The Hyuuga gave him an amused glance, then activated his Byakugan for another quick scan of the surrounding area. He checked the area around the stream last (just to make certain that Sakura was alright, of course), and found himself unexpectedly entranced by the sleek lines of her body, the way the water beaded in glistening droplets on her white shoulders and traced gleaming rivulets down the pale skin of her back, the—

"If you're spying on me, Naruto, I'll tear your spine out through your throat and beat you to death with it. _And_ I'll tell Hinata-chan. And maybe Sasuke-kun, too."

Jarred from his appreciative musings, Neji blinked hard, swiftly deactivating his Byakugan and locking his gaze firmly on the flickering flames of their small fire, ashamed at being caught (more or less) doing something so inappropriate, not mention out of character, and rather angry at himself for allowing his gaze to linger as long as it had. He supposed he shouldn't really blame himself--she _was_ quite lovely, after all--but there was so much more to her than that, and the way he'd been ogling her was hardly respectful of that fact.

She was beautiful, yes, but that wasn't all. Tenten was beautiful. That screechy Yamanaka girl was also beautiful, he supposed, if you liked blondes. There were all sorts of girls in Konoha who were beautiful, but most of them were little else. Beauty wasn't all one looked for in a woman--at least, it shouldn't be all one looked for. Kindness, intelligence, strength, spirit, and courage, those were all important too, perhaps even more important than beauty, and Sakura had them all. Trite as it sounded, Neji had never encountered any other girl quite like her; he had always thought that his extremely high standards would cripple his love life, but, perfectionist and purist that he was, he would not permit himself to lower them one bit. He would have someone whom he admired in all the ways that he knew he should, or he would have no one at all, loneliness and all that be damned.

Tenten had approached him twice now--once when they'd been younger, and again more recently--and he still felt a slight pang every time he thought about how he'd turned her away, but it was not at all a pang of regret. He had felt badly for the girl, for hurting her feelings, but though she was very pretty, and was caring enough in her own oftentimes-rough way, and though she was a good teammate, somehow he'd simply not thought of her that way, hadn't even considered it, really, and once he finally had, it had made little difference; he simply wasn't attracted to her in that manner, and he'd had to tell her so, which he'd done as gently as he knew how (though to his immense bewilderment, she'd still cried a bit, which made him feel even worse about the whole matter). But even tears could not shake his resolve in that situation.

He wanted someone who could match his strength, or who could at least compliment it, someone who was truly an extraordinary kunoichi.

He wanted someone whom he could have complex and detailed conversations with, someone who could easily keep up with his wit and intellect, someone who wasn't awestruck or intimidated by his "genius" label or status simply because they were just as smart as he was, or at least nearly so.

He wanted someone who cared for others, someone gentle, someone responsive to the feelings shared by other people. Someone willing to die for the ones they loved.

And if that person, that woman, had all that, and was beautiful too, well then, he'd found the person he wanted to be with.

And he'd been starting to think that he had indeed found that person at long last, but then of course everything had changed.

_If only I'd moved more quickly,_ he mentally berated himself at least a dozen times a day. _If only I'd asked her when there was still a chance._

But he hadn't. He hadn't for a lot of reasons--very valid reasons, he told himself, tried to convince himself.

He hadn't been sure before. That was a good reason. Or would have been, had it been true. He'd always been the type to know precisely what he wanted, and this case was no different.

He didn't know what she really thought of him…though he'd caught the looks she'd given him every now and again when she thought he wouldn't notice. So perhaps that reason didn't count.

But he hadn't known what his uncle would think about the matter. That was important. He didn't know how Sakura would take to the stiff formalities of the Hyuuga clan. Important as well. He didn't know if she'd be able to bear watching their children sealed with that wretched _juin_ when they came of age, though he planned to fight against that occurrence with every fiber of his being. He didn't know if she was really over the Uchiha survivor, or if she was even looking for a relationship. He didn't even know if she _wanted_ to get married and have children.

He didn't know…

…He didn't know how to ask her.

And he didn't like how vulnerable asking would make him.

And really, _those_ were the only two reasons that kept him from approaching her as more than a friend.

And those were both terrible reasons, he knew _that_ beyond a shadow of a doubt.

He knew that the fact of the matter was, arrogant and conceited as his behavior was most of the time, really he was simply too nervous to ask, so he'd begun spending more time around her when he could think up a good enough excuse, but ever since Uchiha had come back, she'd been caring for _him_ almost constantly. Neji knew that the disturbed ex-missing nin had needed that painstaking care, but it still unsettled him. After all, she had been spending nearly all her time with her first love; it had been all that he could do to see her once or twice a week, and invite her for tea one of those times on the pretense of asking after Sasuke.

…Actually, everything would probably be a great deal simpler if the Uchiha had never come back. Or if he had died. But he _had_ come back, and death seemed unlikely considering the fact that he'd been discharged from the Konoha hospital months ago and was now free to wander the streets of Konoha at will.

Neji sighed inwardly. Well, one could still hope.

He was still moodily contemplating the fire, the half-finished cup of tea in his hand long gone cold, when Sakura returned, her long hair wet and mostly pink once again. With a wicked grin, she darted across the little clearing and snatched Naruto's blanket, quickly using it to rub her hair dry before tossing it back over his face; there wasn't even a hitch in the blonde's heavy snoring in response.

Pouting a bit at the lack of reaction from her former teammate, Sakura dug her own blanket out of her pack, wrapping herself in it as she settled down in front of the fire. She accepted the silently offered cup of tea with a smile of appreciation for Neji, who seemed reluctant to meet her gaze for some reason, but she was too focused on satiating her hunger to give it much thought just then. "Mm, this tea is great," she said after it had cooled a bit.

"I'm glad you find it enjoyable."

Both were quiet for a while, Sakura munching on a rice ball, Neji sipping at a fresh cup of tea.

"Ah, I've been meaning to ask you, Neji-san," she said at last, a welcome breach of the silence stretching between them, "how did you know that woman Naruto was talking to back at the bar was that drunk guy's girlfriend?"

The Hyuuga genius smirked, a decidedly malicious cast to the expression. "I didn't. But I could tell from his breath alone that that besotted troglodyte couldn't see _or_ think straight enough to know the difference."

"But you weren't really getting Naruto back for the chuunin exams all those years ago, were you."

"Indeed not. It was much more relevant to current matters than that."

Sakura arched an eyebrow questioningly, and Neji's smirk shifted to a look of displeasure.

"He'd made advances on the majority of the female portion of the clientele present that establishment all night, which I'm certain he would claim was solely for the sake of the mission, but he seemed to be enjoying himself far too much for my liking."

"I guess Jiraiya-sama's disease was contagious after all," the medic-nin said with a short laugh. "Though Naruto was always something of a peeping tom, even back in our genin days." She took a long pull of tea to wash down the last of the onigiri before smiling over at Neji. "It's really cute how you're always looking out for Hinata-chan, even with this kind of thing. I'm sure she appreciates it."

"I suppose so," Neji said neutrally, leaning forward to refill Sakura's cup.

"What does your uncle think of Naruto? I've heard Naruto's version of their first meeting, of course, but I don't know how much of that is true, and Hinata just goes red and won't say a word about it."

The corners of the Hyuuga's lips quirked upwards in a near-approximation of a smile. "Naruto is somewhat susceptible to hyperbole, I agree, but in this case 'disaster' would be a _mild_ designation for the chain of events that took place at the Main House on that particular evening."

"What?" Sakura looked startled. "But Naruto told me it went really well!"

Neji shook his head gravely. "I believe my uncle was thoroughly relieved, if not a little surprised, that the Hyuuga complex was still standing and that no one had been killed or seriously injured by the end of it."

The pink-haired medic listened in disbelief as Neji went on to describe in detail everything that had gone wrong--which took a while, considering that apparently everything _had_ gone wrong, from the time the blonde had been caught slipping into Hinata's rooms half an hour before he was due to arrive for the dinner, through the meal itself, where he'd gestured a bit too wildly and hit the tray of a passing serving girl, dumping several bowls of hot miso soup all over the Hyuuga elders, and right up to how he'd accidentally stood too close or else just bowed too deeply as he was leaving and knocked heads with Hyuuga Hiashi-sama.

Sakura was nearly in tears by the end of his story, both from the narrative itself and due to her attempts to muffle her laughter, and the absolutely straight face Neji kept throughout his entire recounting of the event only made it funnier.

"You made that up--you made that whole thing up, didn't you," she managed to accuse through her giggles. "How much of that is really true?"

"Not a word of it," Neji admitted, eyes crinkling in amusement despite his deadpan answer, and Sakura doubled over in laughter again. "In fact, as far as I know, Hiashi-sama all but gave them his blessing."

"Wow."

"Indeed. Should that be the case, the Hyuuga compound will certainly be a great deal more _lively."_

"I think you mean _loud."_

"I think I do as well," Neji agreed. "I'll take first watch," he added after a moment of thoughtful silence from the pink-haired kunoichi.

"Thanks, Neji-san," she said, giving him a wide smile and shifting to stretch out on her side. "I'll take over in a few hours, but if you need me to do it sooner..."

"I will be quite fine, I assure you. Get some rest, Sakura."

Sakura's only reply was an inarticulate mumble, but the content expression on her face was response enough.

Neji scanned the surrounding area once again; then, satisfied that they were indeed safe for the moment, he contented himself with watching the firelight play across the contours of her face and glorying in the simple music of her breathing.


	14. Which Contains Some Good Advice

It was complicated, that much was undeniable.

It had been a week since Sakura had left to go on her first ANBU mission since the one she'd been on when she'd found him, and Sasuke found her sudden absence to be surprisingly jarring. If he had been totally honest with himself (which in this case he wasn't, of course), he would have admitted to feeling a bit lost without her constant, cheerful presence there by his side. After all, she'd been with him every day since he'd been back in the village until now, though she had claimed that it was her duty as a medic-nin and that Tsunade would skin her alive if anything happened to the last of Konoha's prestigious Uchiha clan. But regardless of the reason for it, she had been there...and the fact that she wasn't any more was, oddly (and irritatingly) enough, slightly distressing: without her there, the emptiness inside him that she always tried so hard to fill remained completely empty, and that hollow feeling was far from pleasant.

...Though now it seemed...somehow _different_ than it had a few months ago, almost like it had changed into a different _sort_ of emptiness...

Then, of course, there was the _other_ feeling.

It was a strange sensation, and somehow Sasuke couldn't truly discern what the feeling was (though he had his suspicions, and thus was doing everything he could to ignore and deny it). He wasn't sure that it was _love_, exactly—it had been so long since someone had loved him, and since he'd loved someone in return—but he knew that he liked having her around. Her presence was comforting somehow. Soothing. She made him feel warm for the first time in years. And annoying as she could be sometimes, she was bright and lively, and forced his thoughts away from the darkness in his past.

When it came down to it, he simply had no idea what was going on inside himself, and that concerned him. It was too complex, too convoluted, and he wasn't at all certain that he liked these vague stirrings inside him in a place that he had thought would remain cold and motionless until his dying day.

He didn't know exactly what she was doing to him, and being on that uncommon, unsteady ground made him more than a little apprehensive. Sasuke did _not_ like not being in control of himself, he'd learned that much in his years away from Konoha.

He knew that he couldn't deny that he felt something for her…though he truly didn't know what that _something_ was.

He also knew that he didn't like this feeling of—could it be _loneliness?_—that she'd left him with.

No…he knew very well what loneliness felt like, and while similar, it was not quite the same. And try as he might to convince himself that it was nothing more than ordinary loneliness, deep down he knew better.

The Uchiha sighed, though it came out sounding more like a snort. Perhaps it would've been easier if Naruto hadn't gone on the mission as well. Both his closest friends were gone--the two people who had unwaveringly and unhesitantly defended his honor among the justifiably suspicious people of Konoha--and he was left to wander the streets and the surrounding areas of Konoha alone. The thought never even crossed his mind that he could spend his time with some of the other shinobi his age—he'd never been particularly social unless he was forced into it.

Who else was going on the mission with them? Sasuke paused in front one of the many shops along the street to think, staring unseeingly through the window. Ah, yes. Hyuuga Neji. One corner of his mouth pulled back in a slight smile. He'd always wanted to fight Neji--to prove the superiority of the Uchiha Clan over the Hyuuga Clan once and for all, of course--but he'd never gotten the chance. It was quite a shame, really…perhaps once he was off probation he'd extend a challenge to the purported genius of the Hyuuga clan.

_That's a fight to look forward to…though he_ was _beaten by Naruto, so then again_... Sasuke shrugged inwardly. He himself had very nearly been beaten by Naruto back then; the blonde was definitely no easy opponent, and if one underestimated him…

The Uchiha chuckled at the idea of the composed Hyuuga being subjected Naruto's characteristic "beating-with-a-complementary-lecture," which was evidently what had happened back when they were kids, and Sasuke regretted once again that he'd been late and had thus missed seeing that match.

But regardless of the past, a fight with Neji would still be interesting. He _was_ a Hyuuga after all, reportedly the strongest of his clan, and it went without saying that he'd gotten stronger since his humiliating defeat by the village idiot ten years hence, so who knew what tricks he'd have up his sleeves now? The idea was intriguing, and a slight tingle of anticipation ran through Sasuke's body at the thought.

…There was something else about the pale-eyed Hyuuga that hovered at the edge of his thoughts; it irritated him until he really concentrated on it, finally recalling that he'd seen Neji quite a bit while he'd been back in the hospital, and that he'd questioned Sakura about the impassive Hyuuga's seemingly constant presence. She'd been uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the subject now that he thought about it...

That sudden realization made him feel genuinely curious, and as before, just slightly insecure.

He didn't like the feeling.

"Sasuke?"

His thoughts interrupted, he turned to see the familiar figure of Hatake Kakashi standing beside him.

"Kakashi-sensei," he nodded.

"I'm surprised to find you here, Sasuke. I didn't know you were a fan of these kinds of books, too." The book Kakashi held up was brightly colored, just like the rest of his collection, and scrawled across the top in bold characters was the title _Icha Icha Mayhem_; below that, a trio of half-dressed women seemed to be engaged in a wrestling match of sorts over a vaguely familiar-looking man with shaggy white hair and a toothy leer.

Blinking in surprise, Sasuke turned his head and actually looked through the window for the first time. It was the Shueido Bookstore, he realized instantly, and a growing sense of mortification spread through him as he found himself staring in at numerous stacks of _Icha Icha_ books, and row upon row of _other_ things of similar literary quality (or rather, the lack thereof). He could feel his face heating up, and he quickly spun on his heel and stalked off down the street, leaving his old sensei behind.

But Kakashi wasn't through teasing him yet. "Does Sakura-chan know about this new interest of yours?" he asked lightly, falling into step with his former student. "I get the feeling that she might be disappointed in you."

"Shut up," Sasuke growled, not slowing his ferocious stride, but Kakashi easily kept pace.

"Don't you care about Sakura-chan's feelings, Sasuke?"

Abruptly the Uchiha stopped, whirling on the silver-haired man beside him. It was a bit of a shock to find that they were basically the same height; Sasuke was still used to looking somewhat _up_ at Kakashi-sensei. "It's none of your business what I care about."

Kakashi just stared at him impassively with his single-eyed gaze. His face was infuriatingly impossible to read, and not for the first time Sasuke barely restrained himself from forcibly _ripping _the mask off the older man's face in order to see the rest of his expression.

Sasuke clenched and unclenched his fists several times; this silence was making him uneasy, and for some reason he felt like the blank-eyed jounin could somehow see a great deal more that he let on, even without using his Sharingan.

"Ichiraku is just about a block away," Kakashi finally said slowly. "Care to join me for old time's sake? My treat."

After a long moment's hesitation, Sasuke nodded, though he didn't doubt for a second that somehow _he'd_ end up with the bill regardless of the silver-haired jounin's promise to pay.

As they settled themselves on the familiar stools, Sasuke wondered idly if Naruto or Sakura had ever been successful in sneaking a peek at their old sensei's face—he'd have to ask when they got back…

"Miso ramen with pork, please," Kakashi said absently, cracking open his book and totally missing the faint blush that colored Ayame's cheeks as she marked down his order.

After ordering something for himself (and causing Ayame to blush once more), Sasuke sat back and looked over at Kakashi with a smirk. "I'm interested in seeing how you do this."

Kakashi looked up distractedly from _Icha Icha Mayhem,_ his one droopy eye innocent. "Oh?" He turned a page, burying his nose in the book once more as he replied, "How I do what?"

"Eat your ramen without letting me see your face."

"Hmm..."

A long silence stretched between them, broken only by the sound of boiling ramen and the whisper of rapidly turning pages.

_He invited me here, and yet all he's going to do is sit and read that disgusting book the whole time?_ Sasuke snorted, finding himself wishing that Sakura, or at least Naruto, were there to fill the uncomfortable silence with their idle chatter.

"So," Kakashi said at last, "how are you holding up?"

Sasuke glanced at his companion out of the corner of his eye, but Kakashi was still reading, his eye vacantly scrolling along in a manner that was nearly hypnotizing. He didn't know why, but he felt vaguely cagey about the question. It _sounded_ innocent enough, but coming from Kakashi-sensei, one could never be entirely sure. Deciding that ignorance was the best tack to take here, he answered the question with one of his own, "What do you mean?"

"Sakura-chan's been gone almost a week."

"So?"

Kakashi let out a quiet chuckle and turned another page; Sasuke wasn't certain whether he was laughing at the book or at Sasuke himself, though he suspected that it was the latter.

"You certainly are stubborn, Sasuke_-kun."_

The Uchiha hissed a sigh from between gritted teeth and glared down at the countertop. "This is a total waste of my time."

"Perhaps," Kakashi said, still not looking up from his wretched book, "but what else were you planning on doing this evening?"

Sasuke hadn't been planning on doing anything, of course, and both of them knew it.

Silence fell between them once more.

Pages rustled.

Sasuke fidgeted.

"So," the older man finally broke the silence again. "How have you and Sakura-chan been getting along? I've seen you together quite a bit lately."

"So what? We were teammates, and the Council was forcing her to keep an eye on me."

"Uh, yeah…but why isn't Naruto with you most of the time, then? He was your teammate, too, and the Council gave him the same responsibility they gave Sakura-chan."

Sasuke's withering glare was an unmistakable warning to his old sensei that this was not a topic open for discussion, but the silver-haired man didn't seem to notice his expression.

"It's not really my business…" Kakashi began as two pleasantly steaming bowls of ramen were set down in front of them, and inwardly Sasuke agreed vehemently, "…but if you don't mind my asking—"

"You know, I _might,_ come to think of it—"

"—What are you so afraid of, Sasuke?"

That brought his head up with a jerk, and his eyes turned towards Kakashi's as surely as if drawn by the _Mangekyō_ Sharingan. Sasuke's lips pulled back slightly and he barred his teeth in a small, silent snarl at the accusation; the older man merely looked back at him calmly, his expression, or what little of it could be seen, blasé as ever.

"I'm not _afraid_ of anything," the Uchiha muttered at last, turning back to his food and picking up his chopsticks. "I don't know…" Absently he poked at the floating noodles, stirring them slowly and mindlessly. "I'm just…even now, after all this time…I'm still not sure that I can give her what she wants. What she…deserves, I guess."

"There you go again, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said cheerfully. "Ever the optimist."

"_I'm being SERIOUS, you idiot!"_ Sasuke snapped at him, unconsciously clenching his fist so hard his chopsticks let out an audible crack. Their eyes met again for the space of a few heartbeats--Sasuke's narrowed to scarlet slits and brimming with anger and frustration, Kakashi's dark and cool--then the Uchiha heir looked away abruptly, focusing his attention on snatching and separating a new pair of chopsticks; he could feel his old teacher's piercing gaze on him still, and felt rather abashed for slipping like that. _It's not like me to show that kind of raw emotion about something like this…what is _wrong_ with me? _Studiously ignoring his ex-teacher's unrelenting stare, he bent to his meal again.

He'd eaten a total of two mouthfuls when the quiet _thunk_ of china on wood caught his attention. Swallowing his current mouthful, he glanced over at Kakashi, finding his increasingly irritating companion immersed once more in _Icha Icha Mayhem_…and the large bowl in front of him completely empty.

He gaped at the masked man in unconcealed astonishment, his jaw dropping so far as to nearly come unhinged; then, remembering himself, he shut it with a clack and let out a low growl. Kakashi, however, seemed not to notice, and serenely turned another page in his book.

With another growl, this one closer to a snarl, the Uchiha turned back to his own meal, attacking it with a determination he'd lacked before.

"Sasuke."

Kakashi's tone of voice made him pause with a bunch of noodles halfway to his mouth. Slowly lowering his chopsticks, he reluctantly looked over to meet the solemn gaze of that one dark eye, and for the first time that night, he knew Hatake Kakashi was being completely and utterly serious.

"You shouldn't let something good get away from you simply because you don't know…or are too stubborn to admit…that you want it." His hand descended heavily on Sasuke's shoulder in the same old, comfortingly familiar manner it had when the raven-haired Uchiha was twelve. The masked man gave his shoulder a slight squeeze, his exposed eye crinkling in that equally familiar smile; then without another word, he rose and disappeared into the night, hands sunk deeply into his pockets, his pace and his slouch as lazy as ever.

A faint smile turned Sasuke's mouth as he watched him go. _He can be irritating, but I guess there really_ is _more to him than meets the eye… _He snorted softly. _Thanks for the advice, Kakashi_.

His smile didn't fade until he turned back to his half-empty bowl to find the bill for both meals sitting in front of him.

_I knew it._

He scowled down at the scrap of paper. Sakura was right. Some things really never _did_ change.


	15. Which Concerns A Date Of Sorts

It was always nice returning to Konoha after a mission, regardless of the mission's length or difficulty. There was something almost heartwarming about how the gates always seemed to be thrown open wide, like outstretched arms waiting to welcome you back, and there was a certain sense of security that enveloped you as you made your way down the streets where you'd run and played as a child, all the well-known sights and smells caressing your senses with their comforting familiarity.

It was times like that that the entire village felt like home.

Sakura could think of few times that she'd been happier to see those wide-open and welcoming gates. She was tired and hungry, and that quick dip in the stream two nights ago had been less than satisfactory, though at least she'd had a chance to scrub the dye out of her hair. Yes, she thought, her pace quickening slightly at the sight of the lights glimmering just through that tall stone arch, a hot shower followed by a nice, long soak was in order. Food could wait...or could it? As she pondered this, she felt her stomach give a low growl and sighed. No, food definitely came first.

Once all three of them had stepped inside the gates--the official end of the mission--Naruto let out a happy whoop. "See ya around, Sakura-chan!" he shouted to her over his shoulder, waving at her with his whole arm as he sprinted off. She smiled, knowing that he was heading straight for the Hyuuga manor. That reminded her of her other companion, and she turned to look up at Neji, who was still standing silently and motionlessly at her side. "I'm sure you'll be seeing him later, Neji-san. I'm pretty sure he was going to see your cousin."

"Lucky me," Neji snorted lightly, though the slight curve of his lips belied the displeasure in his tone.

Both stood in silence for a while, Sakura feeling increasingly awkward with each passing moment. "Well," she said at last, unable to stand the unusual tension any longer, "I guess I should get going. It was nice to work with you again, Neji-san," she said with a bright smile and a quick bow. Without really waiting for his response, she turned to go—then froze as a gentle hand suddenly caught her shoulder. She paused, then turned to face him again, curiosity reflecting in her jade eyes.

"Haruno…are you hungry?"

She blinked, then nodded, feeling her stomach rumble again and hoping it had been quiet enough to go undetected.

"Would you like to get something to eat?" He gave her that faint, almost shy, smile, and she felt something flutter oddly in her chest.

She smiled back up at him. "I'd love to, Neji-san."

His small smile remained in place as he started off down the street. "Where were you thinking of eating?"

"I don't know," she said, falling into step beside him. "Probably Ichiraku, or maybe somewhere else quick and cheap."

"What would you say to sushi?"

"Don't really have the money for the good stuff," she admitted with a grimace. She'd been helping to support her mother for a while now, and that always took a considerable chunk out of her paychecks, regardless of how much she worked.

He raised an eyebrow. "I'll pay."

"Really?" She looked up at him eagerly; it had been a while since she'd had good sushi. "Deal!"

Neji let out a quiet chuckle. "You're too easy, Haruno."

"Are you kidding me? Who turns down free sushi?"

"Who indeed?" He smiled down at her smugly. "But you're still too easy, Haruno..."

She gave him an arch glance. "Oh? How so?"

"Well, apparently all that one needs to do to ask you out is to make you an offer you can't refuse."

She had to think about that one for a moment, but by the time her brain had isolated the phrase _to ask you out,_ they were already at the restaurant. It was a nice, rather traditional-looking place, with low tables and _zabuton_ cushions walled off in separate, raised booths. The air smelled of smoke, spices, and of course fish, though the latter was mercifully faint.

_So...is this...a date? _Sakura wondered as she settled herself on the cushion across from Neji. _I mean, is it a _real _date, or was he just teasing me again?_ As she was sitting directly across from him, there was no way for her to even attempt taking a covert glance at the handsome man in front of her. She'd already learned her lesson about that, in any case: no matter how sneaky she thought she was being, he would notice. He always did. So instead she looked straight at him, meeting his gaze plainly as she asked, "So...what's the point of the, ahem, _monetary encouragement _this time? Is it somehow for my own good again?"

"Decidedly," he replied, calmly taking a sip of the tea their server had just placed before them.

"Care to elaborate?"

"No, not particularly," the Hyuuga said with the usual slight smirk, though Sakura thought that the expression seemed somehow...softer. And despite the fact that she _knew_ he knew that she was watching him, she found it very difficult to force her eyes away from the intriguing gentleness currently displayed on his face.

Sakura had often wondered why she hadn't really taken any special notice of the Hyuuga prodigy until recently--he was undeniably handsome, and from Konoha's oldest and most illustrious family as well, and because of her medic-nin duties, she had known for a long while that his body was just as stunning as his face, all lean, corded muscle, hard angles, and flat planes.

What, then, had kept her from choosing Neji as her new object of affection after Sasuke had left?

She figured that it had something to do with all the similarities she had initially seen between Neji and Sasuke (and though she still found them similar in some ways, she now knew that there were vast differences there as well): after her experience with the Uchiha heir, she had not been particularly eager to latch onto another human ice cube. Once bitten, twice shy, and all that.

So what was going on now?

_I'm going to have to talk to Ino about this,_ Sakura resolved as she forced her eyes away at last, albeit a bit reluctant in her resolution. The blonde girl was quite popular with the male portion of Konoha and knew a lot about love, or relationships at least, but she was also the biggest gossip Sakura knew. She would have to be _very_ careful about what she told Ino, or soon (perhaps ten minutes or so after she and Ino parted ways) all of Konoha would be buzzing with the news that Haruno Sakura secretly had the hots for Hyuuga Neji.

"Sakura."

Neji's voice broke in on her private thoughts, and she stopped staring blankly at her menu to glance across the table at him questioningly.

The Hyuuga inclined his head, his eyes flicking somewhere behind her. "At the door. Isn't that Kakashi-senpai?"

"What?" Sakura said, twisting about in her seat. "Oh, yeah, it is--Kakashi-sensei!" she called, waving at the silver-haired jounin enthusiastically.

_He appears to be looking for something,_ Neji thought as he watched the older man continue to scan the room, finally stopping once his gaze rested on their table. _Or perhaps some_one.

In a matter of moments, Kakashi was standing beside their table, confirming Neji's suspicions. "Hello, Sakura-chan," he said lightly, sliding into the booth across from his former student and seating himself almost on top of Neji, forcing the visibly displeased Hyuuga to move to the back of the table.

Before the white-eyed ANBU captain could make any sharp comments, their server arrived to take their orders. "Neji's paying," Sakura chirped when Kakashi declined placing an order of his own, but the masked man just gave another shake of his head.

"Actually, I'm surprised to see you out and about, sensei," she went on, glad for the break in the unusual atmosphere that had been developing between Neji and herself (though at the same a little annoyed at the date-crashing). "You're usually so antisocial. Take-out seems more like your style."

Kakashi just chuckled as he pulled a well-worn copy of the first book in the _Icha Icha_ series out of his hip bag. "It is, but I tend to make exceptions for special occasions."

"Eh? Special occasions?" She frowned slightly, trying to remember if there was something special about the day's date--then wondering if the date with Neji was the special occasion. But Kakashi had never interrupted any of her dates before…and there had been more than a few that she would've been glad to see cut short.

"Yes, what 'special occasion' merits us the pleasure of your presence?"

Kakashi looked up from his book long enough to meet Neji's quietly angry gaze with one of his trademark calm, blank stares, gave a slow blink, then returned his attention to the book in his hand, leaving the Hyuuga silently fuming. He was doing this on purpose, that much Neji knew; he had to be. But what was the purpose, what was the cause behind it all?

He turned those questions over in the back of his mind as Sakura restarted the conversation between them, though with Kakashi's presence shattering their privacy and dampening his mood, Neji reverted to his usual coolly detached manner, with Kakashi seemingly ignoring the both of them in favor of his reading material of choice; needless to say, Sakura was left to carry the conversation, which she did admirably, though she certainly didn't miss the faint lines of irritation pinching Neji's brow or the brief half-glances Kakashi gave her every three pages or so.

Thankfully, their food didn't take long to arrive, and despite his earlier refusal, Kakashi helped himself to a good bit of it, carefully keeping his book in front of his face the entire time; once a large portion of the food was gone (most notably the eel, which Neji had ordered and which Kakashi had eaten most of), the silver-haired jounin suddenly snapped his book shut and stood, mask already settled in place once more.

Sakura blinked at him. "You're leaving? Now?"

"Yep. Wouldn't want to intrude, after all," he said, turning one of his overly-cheerful one-eyed smiles on the still cold-faced Neji. "Anyway, I just wanted to drop by to pass along some interesting information." There was nothing insincere in his smile this time as he continued, "Sasuke missed you."

* * *

"_Sasuke missed you. He'd never admit as much, of course…but I just thought you should know, Sakura-chan."_

Sakura sat across from Ino at their usual table in their favorite sweet shop, absently stirring her iced sweet tea with her straw, setting the ice cubes spinning and clinking against the glass. The blonde was busily chatting with the server about something or other, allowing Sakura another chance to mull over the events of the previous evening. Neji had escorted her home after they'd finished their meal and shared another pot of tea, but though he'd still been perfectly civil, he'd seemed more distant than he'd been before Kakashi had stopped by their table. Truth be told, she'd probably been somewhat distant herself, startled as she'd been by what Kakashi had said.

Sasuke had missed her. She couldn't help but smile slightly at that, especially since she knew that Kakashi wouldn't have gone to the trouble of telling her if he hadn't been 100% sure that it was the truth.

She chewed thoughtfully on her straw. How had Kakashi known that, though? He was pretty sneaky, even for a ninja, but prying personal information out of Sasuke was like trying to squeeze water from a stone, and generally not half as rewarding. _ Then again, Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun always did have a special sort of bond…both Sharingan-users, both hailed as prodigies, both growing up alone as the last of their clan…_

"Hey, Forehead, what's with that serious face? I thought you said you wanted to talk about a guy."

Jerked back to her present surroundings by Ino's sudden intrusion on her thoughts, Sakura managed half a smile as she nodded. "Yeah, I did."

"You want to talk about a specific guy?" The blonde's excitement was obvious, and she put a sly emphasis on the word _specific,_ making it sound more than a little suggestive_._ It had been a while since Sakura had come to her with something like this--she'd probably been worried that Ino would try to steal the guy for herself…which she very well might have done at one time, depending on who it was; but those times were long past, especially since the curvaceous Yamanaka girl basically had her pick of Konoha's young men. She didn't need to steal anyone else's prospective boyfriends, and besides, other than Sasuke (and maybe Sai for a short time), her taste in men had proved vastly different from Sakura's.

Sakura fought back a grimace; it had still seemed like a good idea when she'd invited Ino to lunch this morning, but now that it came down to it, she wasn't entirely certain she wanted to tell Ino about what might or might not be developing between herself and Neji. _Might as well. It's too late to back out now._ "Yeah..."

Ino leaned closer, eyes gleaming eagerly. "Soooo...who is it? Is it Sasuke?"

"No." _Like I'd tell her about THAT, especially since I haven't even seen Sasuke-kun yet._ Sakura looked down at her hands, a sudden feeling of embarrassment and uncertainty stealing over her. "It's...Neji."

Sakura wasn't really sure what kind of reaction she'd been expecting, but wild, unrestrained laughter certainly wasn't it.

"Neji?" Ino finally managed to gasp out. "_Hyuuga _Neji?"

"Yes," Sakura said, irritated by her friend's laughter. "Who else?"

"_Anyone _else! Oh, wow," the blonde said, wiping a tear from her eye.

The pink-haired girl scowled. "I don't see what's so funny."

"Oh, Sakura, how can you not?" Giggles still periodically interrupted Ino's speech, which Sakura found more than a little annoying. "The guy is absolutely _frigid. _I don't think I've _ever_ seen him look at a woman twice."

Sakura bit her lip and frowned as she thought back to their most recent mission. They had been surrounded by a large number of scantily-clad females, and yet she suddenly realized that she couldn't remember seeing Neji's gaze linger on any of them for more than a brief moment. (His eyes had, in fact, been fixed on Sakura herself most of the time, but she'd missed nearly all of his long, surreptitious looks, or else written them off as acting for their assumed roles.) "Well, I suppose it's true that he's, er...rather reserved..."

"Sakura, he's practically _untouchable!"_ The blonde leaned even closer, her voice taking on the distinct tone that Sakura recognized as Ino's 'gossip voice'. "In _fact, _I talked about it with Tenten the other day, and...I don't think he's ever really seriously dated _any_one."

Sakura felt her conviction on the matter wavering. "Really?" she asked uncertainly. It was true that she'd never seen him around with any girl other than Tenten, Hinata, or Hanabi (she conveniently left herself out of her considerations), but she certainly hadn't thought that he never went out with anyone _ever_. "Are you sure?"

"Well, have _you_ ever seen him with a girl?"

"No, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been out with one!"

Ino gave her a clearly patronizing smile. "Trust me, Forehead...if he _had_ ever been out with anyone more than once and it looked at all serious, _I_ would have heard about it."

Sakura snorted. "The gossip network of Yamanaka Ino is still alive and well, I see."

"You betcha," the blonde said with a mischievous wink.

The medic-nin gave a quiet chuckle. "So then, what's the inside scoop on Hyuuga Neji?"

Ino gave an offhanded shrug. "Near as I can tell, he isn't interested in women."

Sakura's eyes widened. _"Surely _you're not saying that you think he's—"

"Well, no, not exactly," Ino cut in quickly, "but you have to admit it's kind of suspicious. Tenten said he turned her down when she asked him out a few years back, and he did it again a few months ago when she asked him a second time. _And,"_ she said solemnly, as if this fact in particular sealed the deal, "he didn't even take a good look at me when I tried to seduce him during our first chuunin exam."

"He was thirteen years old! A lot of boys don't even _like_ girls at that age!" Sakura protested, rolling her eyes and taking a long sip of her iced tea; then the second half of Ino's sentence actually sunk in, and her eyes snapped back up. "Wait, you did what now?"

Ino, who had the good sense to look somewhat abashed, glanced away quickly, waving it off. "Oh, it was nothing...and like I said, it didn't work anyway."

"You tried to _seduce _him?" Sakura's voice rose shrilly.

"No! ...Okay, well, maybe sorta."

The medic-nin gaped at her openly. "Ino, you were _twelve!"_

The blonde gave her a wicked grin. "Yeah, so?"

A tired sigh was Sakura's only reply.

"Why the sudden interest?" Ino asked after a moment.

"Oh, no reason," the medic-nin replied casually, only to be met with a look from her childhood friend that clearly stated that the blonde wasn't buying it. "…What?"

"You're not getting away that easily, Billboard Brow. You have to have _some_ reason for asking…" Slowly one pale eyebrow arched upwards, the toothy grin reappearing as well. _"Haruno Sakura,_ are you in love with Hyuuga Neji?" she demanded rather too loudly for Sakura's liking, slamming her hands down on the table and earning a few curious glances from the people sitting nearby.

"Ino! _Shh!"_ the pink-haired girl gasped in dismay, unable to quell the sudden, embarrassed flush spreading across her cheeks.

Ino took this as all the proof she needed. "You _are!"_ she crowed, jabbing an accusing finger and sprawling backwards in her chair in a second fit of uncontrollable laughter.

Sakura scowled and took a quick swat at her friend's arm. "Ino, _no!_ Well, that is, I…I'm not sure." Her scowl changed to a faint frown of uncertainty as she pressed her hands to her still-flushed cheeks.

"Hey, I don't really blame you," Ino shrugged after her second burst of laughter had faded away. "He is some hot stuff. So," she leaned forward with a sly grin, "how do you plan on _ensnaring_ him?"

This conversation was not going at all the way that Sakura had hoped it would.

"Look, you've got it all wrong," Sakura said, shaking her head and inwardly bracing herself to endure a third eruption of Ino's obnoxiously loud laughter. "I wanted to talk to you about Neji because…well, because I think that _he_ might like _me."_

This statement was greeted with stunned silence and a wide-eyed stare from Ino—once again definitely not the reaction that Sakura had expected.

"Say _something,"_ she snapped at last. "Is it really that unbelievable? That someone besides Naruto or Lee might possibly like me?"

"Well, no," Ino said at last, still looking rather taken aback, "of course it's not unbelievable that someone might like you, but…"

"But _what?_" Sakura demanded.

"But…Neji?" The blonde shook her head slowly. "Sorry, I just…don't see that ever happening."

Sakura drew herself up, suddenly and surprisingly angry at her oldest friend's skepticism. "No? Well then, why is he constantly around me for no real reason--so much so that even _Naruto_ has noticed it?"

"You're both in ANBU, and you're friends—" the blonde began, but Sakura cut her off.

"And how do you explain all the teasing he's been doing lately?"

Ino shook her head firmly. "He's just flirting, Forehead, and you're old enough to know not to take that kind of thing seriously—"

"_And,"_ Sakura said triumphantly, _"what_ would you call what happened last night—when he invited me out for sushi and paid for it, saying that apparently all one needs to do to ask me out is to make me an offer I can't refuse?"

Ino blinked in surprise. "He said that?"

"Yup," the medic-nin nodded, more than a hint of smugness in her smile. "Sounds kinda like a _date,_ doesn't it?"

"Well, did _he _ever call it that?" the blonde said with a dubious frown.

All the confidence in Sakura's expression promptly crumpled. "No…and that's why I'm confused. That's why I wanted to ask you about all this. So…" she raised pensive green eyes to her friend's thoughtful face. "What do you think?" She hoped she didn't sound _too _hopeful.

"Did he walk you home after you ate together? And did he seem to want you to invite him in?"

"Yes, of course he walked me home…and…I don't know. He's hard to read sometimes--almost as bad as Sasuke." _And sometimes even worse, when he wants to be._

Ino gave a quiet hum of contemplation. "Most guys make it pretty obvious when they want something more, but considering how formal his family is about everything, it might be against some weird clan rules for him to be too forward." She gave a sudden snort of laughter. "So I guess the only way you'll know is if his uncle issues a formal edict giving you permission to marry his nephew or something."

"_Ino…"_

"Alright, I know you're serious about this, but you have to admit that would be funny. Still, I wouldn't read too much into it, Sakura…he's probably just trying to be nice."

Sakura dropped her eyes to her glass again, watching one of the drops of condensation beading the outside trickle slowly downwards. "I know…" She couldn't help feeling a little disappointed, but Ino's comments had echoed her own substantial doubts. What had she been thinking, reading into things like that? After all, what could someone like him possibly see in her, anyway? As shinobi, they were easily equals, of course, but as far as bloodlines were concerned, they were a total mismatch; the Haruno clan was one of the most inconsequential clans in the Village--they didn't even have any special family jutsu to pass down, much less a _kekkei genkai._

"--But hey, that doesn't mean you can't go still go for him if you want him," Ino went on with another predatory grin, then she seemed to shift tracks completely. "That reminds me, I saw this kimono the other day that would be just perfect for you--you never did get those mitarashi sauce stains out of your other formal kimono, did you?"

Sakura shook her head negatively, which seemed to decide things for Ino, who plunked down enough money to cover both their bills before dragging Sakura out of the shop and down the streets toward wherever it was that she'd seen that 'just perfect' kimono. Sakura let herself be dragged along--she _had_ been meaning to get a new kimono for a while now, and Ino's fashion sense was generally right on the mark, and she was thankful that Ino had provided her own diversion; she didn't know what she would've said if the blonde had pressed her for details about how things were going with Sasuke. She wasn't ready to tell Ino about what Kakashi had said, especially after the last few rumors about her and Sasuke that had been spread around Konoha.

_I guess I'll have to go see Sasuke and figure it out for myself._ Something in her balked at that idea though, the part of her that feared and hated the constant rejection she'd received almost continuously ever since she'd decided at the age of seven that Uchiha Sasuke was the love of her life, the part that hid away little bits of all the pain and sorrow it had caused her over the years. _Don't risk it again,_ it whispered. _Friendship is enough, and it's more than you expected, so don't get greedy. You'll ruin it all and just end up hurt again. It's not worth it._

…_Friendship is enough… _As much as she wanted that to be true, Sakura wasn't sure that it was; it never had been before, after all…and regardless of the risk, she knew that knowing for certain _was_ worth it, and even the possibility of yet another rejection couldn't change her mind about that. She had to know…but this time, she wouldn't go looking for Sasuke.

This time, she'd try letting Sasuke come to her first.


	16. Which Just Makes Things More Difficult

_A/N: ...Yup, it's a new, never-before-posted chapter. But please don't get your hopes up-it was more than half done already, so I thought I might as well finish & post it. Any further updates are still highly unlikely._ :(

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke frowned to himself as he made his way down one of Konoha's many winding side streets, frustration evident in the little lines drawn between his eyebrows and in the tightness of his mouth.

In the weeks since he'd been released from house arrest, the last Uchiha had begun taking long walks around the Village each night. After midnight, Konoha was almost an entirely different place, full of empty, moon-washed streets and silence rather than noisy, milling crowds and the rise and fall of constant conversation. It was peaceful, and the fact that there were significantly fewer people out and about to ogle him was a definite advantage. But as with most everything, there was a practical purpose behind Sasuke's nightly walks: he'd found they helped him think through complicated situations, and they also relieved some of the restless tension he often felt after spending the majority of the day inside; after years of roaming wherever he wanted, being confined to the Village made him a little stir-crazy.

Tonight his thoughts had been scattered and random at first-not that that was so uncommon these days-though after a while he'd found himself thinking about what Kakashi had said about Sakura, and about Sakura herself, both well-worn topics that he'd mulled over many a time on previous walks, and the current source of his frustration.

Sakura had helped him…no, damn it all, she had _saved_ him, she had done that ridiculously dangerous jutsu and brought him back from the very brink of the treacherous precipice he'd been teetering on—fighting and kicking and swearing all the way, yes, but she'd done it.

She'd waited for him.

She had _loved_ him once, and even if she hadn't been the only one, she'd been willing to take a chance and come right out and say it when no one else had.

And somehow, judging by her overly cautious manner around him of late and the way she tended to avoid his eyes, as well as the information contained in that scroll, he didn't think he'd be wrong in guessing that she loved him still.

She _still_ loved him? Really, he thought with a snort, that was pathetic. That anyone could be so stuck on someone that they would wait ten years-ten_ years!_ He shook his head. Absolutely ridiculous.

…And yet…at the same time, it was oddly reassuring to find something that hadn't changed over time, to realize that some people could be trusted and depended on, to recognize that regardless of what he'd done and what he'd become, he was still an important, worthwhile, and desirable person to someone.

Did he find her equally desirable? He couldn't deny that he appreciated, even enjoyed her presence-she was undeniably intelligent, and strong in more ways than he was probably aware of-and the reflexive responses of the more instinctive, purely masculine side of himself assured him that he found her physical appearance very pleasing indeed. She was warm, so warm that it reached through his outward coldness and touched the very heart of him, leaving him feeling slightly thawed inside, even if his behavior and expression remained unchanged (though lately he had caught one corner of his mouth pulling upwards whenever he thought of her, which happened far more often than he would have admitted to anyone). Moreover, she made him feel something he'd not truly felt for years:

She made him feel safe.

Still tightly wrapped in his own thoughts, Sasuke rounded a corner, finding himself stepping out onto the street running alongside one of Konoha's streams, this one leading down to the bridge Team 7 had once taken to meeting on, and slowed, almost faltering to a stop for a single step before recovering his stride. Because there, as if the intensity of his thoughts had summoned her, there she was, standing on the bridge with her back to him, shoulders hunched a little as she stared down at the passing water.

Fighting to push away another brief stab of hesitance, he decided to continue on his chosen path and approach her, just see what he felt, or if he felt anything at all.

* * *

Sakura stared down at the reflective face of the water below her, listening to its quiet gurgle as it slipped downstream, watching the soothing, rippling pattern of the moonlight on its surface, taking slow, deep breaths of the moisture-laden air. It had been a particularly rough day at the hospital, but then again, any day that she lost a patient was rough for her. Even after living through a war and seeing all the horrifying things she'd seen on the battlefield and in the hospitals afterward, it was still hard for her to admit that sometimes there were hopeless cases, that sometimes there would be people that she couldn't save. She'd gotten better at dealing with those losses over the years, but she doubted it would ever be easy to accept what she still saw as failures; honestly, she hoped it wouldn't. She'd always been the type to care too much, and perhaps it was a weakness of sorts, but she still preferred it to the alternative.

She sensed him before she ever heard him coming, and in an instant her mind flashed from that day's particular set of trials to what Kakashi had said at the restaurant the other night. She would have been lying to herself if she'd insisted that the idea of Sasuke missing her hadn't shaken her a little, but she'd succeeded in more or less shrugging it off-after all, when she was away on a long mission, she started missing trivial little things like her own bed, the clean, distinct taste of Konoha's water, and sometimes even the smell of her apartment, so it didn't necessarily _mean_ anything.

…Except it did, because unlike her, Sasuke had always done his best to avoid growing attached to people or things.

"Sakura. What are you doing out so late?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go for a walk," she said with a slight smile, then leaned more heavily against the rail, staring out over the water once more. "It's such a beautiful night…"

Unlike that night so many years ago, the moon was not hanging full and low and in the sky; it was only a half-moon tonight, but the sky was so clear that even a portion of the cratered satellite was enough to bathe the city with an unearthly silver glow. Looking at Sakura, Sasuke couldn't help but stare a bit at the way the moonlight fell on her, turning her skin milky-pale and perfect as porcelain.

She could feel his eyes on her, but she forced herself not to meet his gaze.

"You're staring, Sasuke," she murmured after several long moments, her voice soft and entirely without reproach.

She heard his quiet snort, felt the weight of his gaze move away from her, watched out of the corner of her eye as he turned his face forwards, looking down into the swirling eddies of the water below just as she was; then, and only then, did she dare to raise her own eyes to his face. His expression was as much a mask as always, the familiar introverted look firmly in place on his handsome face, giving her no clue as to why he was there or what he was thinking. With a slight shake of her head she turned her eyes downwards once more, waiting for him to speak, content in the knowledge that he might never do so.

It didn't really matter, she realized with faint surprise. Sasuke—Uchiha Sasuke, Konoha's resident ice block—had sought her out, and even if he didn't say another word to her, she would still be happy: after all, he had willingly and purposefully placed himself in her presence, which meant that he wanted to be near her, at least for a little while.

Of course, it was only after she'd decided to enjoy the silence that he decided to break it.

"I'm glad…that I ran into you here."

The words were quiet, calm, and unexpected, and she looked up sharply at them, feeling a jolt as her wide, green eyes connected with his-dark and moody and reflecting the shattered fragments of moonlight that glanced up from the rippling stream below. Awkward as it was, Sakura found that she couldn't stop staring at them.

_So very beautiful…_

It took her a moment to recover, but she managed a smile, slightly hesitant though it was. "I'm glad, too."

Unable to maintain eye contact any longer, she turned her head again, staring out across the water as that semi-comfortable companionable silence enfolded them once again, and wondering if perhaps Kakashi had been right after all.

* * *

That night marked an obvious yet unobtrusive change in the way Sasuke treated her. After their silent communion of sorts on the bridge, he had taken to spending more time around her for no apparent reason, something he'd never done before. It wasn't a daily thing, and there was no real discernible pattern, but she was almost starting to expect to find him waiting to walk her home late at night after a long shift at the hospital, and though he never outright thanked her or invited himself along, it had been weeks since he'd turned down any of the meals she brought him or refused to go somewhere with her. Sakura couldn't help but notice that he was also gentler somehow, that his face seemed less drawn, his eyes just slightly softer—but only when they were turned towards her.

If he hadn't brushed her off for years, she might've felt a little guilty about the way she'd been taking advantage of this sudden but subtle change to drag him places (or the way he always picked up the bill for their meals out). As it was, she had decided to enjoy it, that it was about time Sasuke paid her back a little for the way he'd treated her in the past.

Which also explained why she was currently forcing him to play this little game with her at the end of what had up until that point been a very quiet, enjoyable picnic.

"Okay, now it's your turn to ask one."

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes before looking back over at her. "I don't know."

Sakura give a little laugh and finished off the last few bites of her onigiri before giving him a verbal nudge. "Come on, Sasuke-kun. You've been gone ten _years._ We've got a lot of catching up to do."

"Even so…this game is stupid."

It really was, Sakura agreed, but it seemed that the only way to get him talking was to either annoy him until he snapped out whatever information she wanted to know, or else call it a game. And since going around annoying him all the time really wasn't the best way to build their relationship-_friendship,_ she reminded herself sternly, _friendship_-they had ended up playing "games" rather often during the last few days.

"Well, maybe if you'd actually _talk _about yourself a little like most people do, we wouldn't have to play these stupid games."

"Fine," he sighed again, though it was really closer to a growl this time. "What do you want to know?"

That was a bit of a difficult question. Despite her use of the Chisei Chikizuna no Jutsu, there was still a lot about Sasuke that Sakura still didn't know, just little things mostly, but she was always vaguely worried that bringing up certain topics-his family, his favorite childhood pastimes, his clan's traditions, and the like-might upset him and drag him back down into the all-encompassing depression he'd only recently escaped. She knew that the day would come when she was just going to have to throw caution to the winds and ask, and deal with his response as best she could, whatever it was…but something told her that it was still too soon to force him to dwell on the memories of what he'd lost.

So what _could_ she ask?

"Um," she said intelligently, her mind searching desperately for some vaguely interesting question to put to him. The memory of what Kakashi-sensei had told her the night she'd come back from her latest mission was foremost in her mind, and she smiled, though there was a definite trace of a smirk in the expression. "Did you miss me while I was gone?"

Sasuke tensed slightly, frowning down at his folded hands. This was Kakashi-sensei's doing, he just knew it. That exasperating, perverted ex-teacher of theirs had stuck his mask-covered nose into something that _wasn't_ his business, and he was going to pay for doing so, Sasuke would see to that. The mildly irritated Uchiha made a mental note to ask Kakashi for a spar later that day, "just to warm up"; _then_ they'd see how the infamous Copy-Nin fared against the man who'd proved a solid match for Uchiha Itachi…

"Sasuke-kun?"

Her inquisitive voice jerked him back out of his rather violent plans for revenge. _It always has to be revenge with me, doesn't it?_ he thought with an inward grimace, and rubbed a hand over his eyes. _Couldn't learn my lesson the first time…but I guess it's been my focus for so long, it's hard to know how to live like anything else matters…_

"Sasuke-kun!"

Oh, yes. The question.

"…I was thinking about something else," he muttered, hoping to stall for more time. It was a difficult question, really, and he wasn't entirely certain that he knew the full answer to it. Of course he'd missed her; but he'd missed Naruto, too. Though…it _had_ felt like a different kind of loneliness when he thought about her not being there to go out for dinner with him that week…but he'd just assumed that the difference was caused by the nature of their relationships. Naruto was almost like a-dare he think it?-brother to him (albeit an exasperating _younger _brother most of the time), and Sakura…

What _was_ Sakura, really? He'd been trying to figure that out these past few weeks, but…

"Yeah," he said at last, not looking over at her as he answered. "It was too quiet without you and the dobe here."

He saw her mouth a silent _oh_ out of the corner of his eye, and noticed her cheery expression fade somewhat. _Nice answer,_ he thought sarcastically, mentally kicking himself.

"My turn now, I guess," he said quickly, hoping to somehow make up for that last answer.

"Okay," she said with a small smile, her face brightening again, interest overriding disappointment.

Something about that smile caught his eye, and Sasuke suddenly found himself staring at the graceful curve of her lips. They were such a delicate shade of pink, and were glistening faintly with whatever it was that girls put on their lips all the time to make them more noticeable, more tempting…

A slow, wicked smirk eased across his own lips, and he had to fight to hold back a chuckle. Time to make this game more interesting.

"Who was your first kiss?"

The pink-haired kunoichi beside him jerked a bit at the question, green eyes wide with disbelief darting up to meet darkly gleaming black.

"My…my first…?"

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I don't really care," the Uchiha said in a bored voice, though the almost predatory glint in his eyes belied that tone.

Sakura stared up at him, utterly bemused. She had only ever seen him act this way when he was needling Naruto…what did it mean that he was behaving this way towards her? "Oh, no, it's okay…i-it's just a little...embarrassing…"

As if her deep blush and halting speech weren't clues enough.

"Embarrassing?" He raised an eyebrow questioningly, and she gulped audibly.

"Ah, w-well, you see…it—it was…it was, um…Naruto."

There was a long moment of silence between them as he digested this information, and Sakura fought a sudden intense urge to fidget.

"Naruto?" he repeated after a moment, sounding as if he didn't quite believe it.

She nodded and refused to meet his eyes, her cheeks scarlet.

"It was back when we were fifteen," she admitted with obvious difficulty. "I kinda had a little crush on him after he came back from his training with Jiraiya—he'd grown up so much, and it was such a surprise to me, something kind of went…weird…in my brain for a while." She swallowed, still not daring to look up at her raven-haired companion. "And so…when we got another lead on where you might be, he left to get you back for me, like he'd promised before…and I…I kissed him before he went."

She glanced up at his quiet snort, relieved to find that he didn't appear to be at all angry; in fact, his smirk had nearly stretched into a real smile—small, but real.

"He probably nearly had a heart attack."

"Yeah, he did—you should've _seen_ him!" Sakura giggled suddenly, the odd tension dissipating with her laughter. "He just stood there and stared at me for the longest time with this shocked expression, and then he turned so red, he was nearly purple."

Sasuke snorted again, though this time it was really more of a snicker. "Then what happened?"

Her mouth worked to contain her smile. "Then...he decided to try to kiss me back, and I punched him through a wall."

He gave a low, brief (and _very_ satisfied) chuckle, and silence fell between them for a moment, the rustle of the wind through the trees and the occasional snatch of birdsong the only sounds to be heard.

"How about you?" she asked at length.

"Hn?"

"Who was your first kiss?"

A sudden faint flush came to his cheeks, and he stared fixedly at something off to his side, refusing to let her get a good look at his face. "You know who it was," he muttered at last. He shuddered at the memory; to this day, it still revolted him and left him feeling disgraced and humiliated, and thus rather angry as well. (But then again, many things seemed to make him angry, so this wasn't really anything special.)

Sakura blinked. "Huh? I do?"

There was a moment of silence as she pondered this and Sasuke silently fumed at the memory.

"How would I?" she said at last, clearly confused.

"You were _there,_ that's how you'd know," he snapped, unable to hold back his irritation. "You _saw_ it." Disgust and loathing were thick in his voice, and she frowned at bit, lost in thought.

"Oh!" she said suddenly, eyes going wide. "Surely you don't mean…that day in the classroom?"

His silence was more than enough of an answer.

"You _do!_ Are you serious, that was your first kiss?" She fought to hold back a giggle, only half-succeeding, and said, "Well, that was kiss from a guy, so we won't count that one. It was an accident anyway. Who was the first _girl_ you kissed?"

Silence once more.

"That's not your business," he said at last, his voice low and harsh; she blinked in surprise at his tone and tried to catch his eye, but he refused to look at her. "It's not important anyway," he amended, his voice softer, but no less guarded. "Don't worry about it."

Curious as she was, this was apparently a touchy subject, so Sakura simply nodded. "You're right, sorry," she said with a lightness in her voice she didn't really feel. _ Even when it's just a game, and the questions are silly, inconsequential things like this, he still can't help shutting me out..._

She stole another quick glance at Sasuke, and even though he still wouldn't look at her, she couldn't stop her smile from returning. It was all relative, after all-they'd had a nice time until just now, and it would be foolish to let this (it _really_ was a stupid game) ruin it all.

Still, this was definitely enough 'fun' for one day.

"It's getting dark," she said, making a show of looking up at the evening sky; before she could add "we should probably go", Sasuke had already gathered up what little evidence remained of their picnic. He didn't say another word, but instead of simply shoving his empty hand in his pocket and starting off without her as he would have done in past years, he stood and waited patiently for her to come alongside him, and they walked back together.

* * *

"…Wanna know what I think?"

After Sasuke had walked her home (yet another recent development), Sakura had fidgeted around her apartment for ten minutes or so, then decided to pay Naruto a visit. If anyone would know what was going on with Sasuke right now, she reasoned, it would be Naruto, and since Hinata was nowhere to be seen when he opened the door, Sakura had no qualms about coming right out and telling him everything, even something as trivial as the game that afternoon and Sasuke's odd reaction to the first-kiss question, which had brought them to their current conversation.

"I bet he just didn't want to admit that he's never kissed a girl," Naruto said with a snicker. "I mean, I know he was never really been interested in any of 'em when we were younger, but at our age? That would be totally embarrassing!"

Sakura gave a snicker of her own and nodded. It made sense enough, she supposed-Sasuke _had_ always hated to lose or be laughed at, after all-but his response had still seemed like overreacting. Not that he hadn't typically done plenty of that, too…

"I guess I should just forget it. At least he's talking to me more."

"Yeah! I'm glad he's being nicer to you now, or I'd have to beat him up again."

There was a distinct pause in the conversation, Naruto's eyes going a little wide in a subtle _oops,_ while Sakura's narrowed in suspicion. He hadn't told her about his fight with Sasuke-at least not what it had REALLY been over-but the look on her face and the sudden, subtle pressure of her hand closing around his arm promised pain if he didn't spill.

"W-well, y'see…it's not like I _only_ fought with him because he was being a selfish, reclusive jackass and wasn't treating you right-not that I _wouldn't_ have kicked his ass just 'cause of that-but heh, haha, you know us, we fight all the time over everything, right, so it's not like that was the _only_ reas-_OW_pleaseletgoofmywristSakura-chaaaaaan..."

Absently Sakura did so, too lost in her own thoughts to realize just how hard she'd been gripping her former teammate's arm. Sasuke really _had_ been a lot nicer lately...and while she wanted to believe that he was simply opening up to her, the fact that Naruto had threatened him changed things. After all, he might very well have been acting a bit kinder because getting into fights would be troublesome.

…But no, Naruto and Sasuke had _always_ fought, and they always _would_ fight, and she didn't doubt for a minute that Sasuke secretly enjoyed it at least somewhat. Besides, Naruto had never been able to threaten Sasuke into doing anything before, and that wasn't ever likely to change.

But even so, the simple truth was that Sasuke hadn't changed for her, or because of her: it had been Naruto again…just like always. That wasn't anything new, of course-it was only to be expected. Still, for some reason, that realization hurt just a little more than usual this time.

Meanwhile, the fox-faced blonde was still trying to figure out a way to backpedal out of his unwitting admission without falling on his proverbial ass, and failing pretty much completely.

"…I mean, uh, _if_ I'd said anything about it, er, about something-which I didn't!-then I _would _have said—"

"Naruto…" she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose in a vain attempt to stave off the headache she could already feel lurking just behind her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

"Okay."

* * *

Haruno Sakura spent a lot of time in her office at the hospital. Most of that time was spent filling out charts and reports, studying new medical jutsu or difficult cases, and other various job-related things; but sometimes, she found herself there during her time off, when she stopped by with the excuse of catching up on paperwork, but really just needed to think. And it made sense: it was fairly quiet, particularly at night-much quieter than her thin-walled apartment-her desk and chair were comfortable, the air conditioning worked, she had a decent view of the park across the street, and after all the hours, days, months of time she'd spent there, the place was comforting in its familiarity.

So it had really been no surprise to find herself heading to her office, even though it was a Saturday afternoon on her weekend off.

Once there, she wasn't sure if what she really wanted was to bury herself in backlogged paperwork and just forget about everything, or sit somewhere peaceful and actually figure things out, so of course she ended up accomplishing neither, at least at first. But slowly, inexorably, thoughts about her present situation stole in, her pen slowing as the doubts and considerations spinning in her head picked up speed.

She knew she still loved Sasuke, that much was certain; what she wasn't sure of was whether she _should._ Years ago she'd thrown herself at him constantly, and had only really succeeded in bothering him and getting herself rejected. Only when her feelings had become deeper, when she'd considered him a friend as well as a possible love interest, when it had become less of a crush and more actual love, had he responded to her with anything other than annoyance. Still, he hadn't accepted her feelings for him even then…and while that might very well have been because his goal came first, that wasn't necessarily the only reason. And the fact that he'd chosen revenge over her love for him and any feelings he might _(might!)_ have had towards her…

Honestly, she might have been okay with it once upon a time, before she and Ino had fought and before she'd become Tsunade's apprentice; but here and now, Haruno Sakura was no longer content to be second best. And even though it had happened years ago, even though people could change (she herself had, obviously), the fact that Sasuke had once considered her such (if that—Naruto might very well have come before her back then, she might have been _third)_ before made her wary of the fact that he could very well do it again.

In fact, she didn't know that she wasn't still only second-best in his mind.

If she were to assume that _was_ the case, Naruto's fight with Sasuke suddenly seemed a whole lot more important. When she looked at it from second place, Sasuke's recent improvement in his treatment of her didn't actually mean anything-he'd just done it because Naruto had asked him to. Never mind what Kakashi-sensei had said; he'd been wrong about Sasuke more than once before, and while Sasuke might very well have missed her, that didn't necessarily mean anything either. After all, it was one thing to miss someone because they were your friend, or something like a surrogate mother; it was quite another to miss them because you were _in love_ with them…

A quiet knock on the doorframe of her office interrupted her train of thought. Looking up from the untouched chart she'd been staring at for the past ten minutes (at least), she was more than slightly surprised to find Hyuuga Neji standing just outside the door.

…Great. As if thinking about ONE guy's feelings for her didn't already have her ready to beat her head against a wall.

She blinked, uncertainty delaying her response for a noticeable half-beat, then gave him a tentative smile. "Neji-san. Can I help you?"

He smirked slightly and pulled a carefully-folded letter out of one of his kimono's full sleeves. "I certainly hope so," he said as he handed it off to her.

Sakura did a quick double-take as she accepted the fancy-looking, traditionally-folded letter, her mind suddenly jumping back to Ino joking about the possibility of needing a formal letter of permission from Hyuuga Hiashi before pursuing a relationship with his nephew.

"…What's this?" she said, perhaps more cautiously than she otherwise would have, eyeing it warily.

"Nothing dangerous enough to merit that sort of suspicion. Though if you actually _open_ the letter, I believe you'll be able to see that for yourself."

Shooting him a flat glare, she broke the paper seal holding it closed, blinking as it accordioned out across her desktop. She scanned it quickly, blinking again in surprise as her eyes caught on a particular phrase.

"…An invitation to a formal dinner?"

"Indeed. The treaty with Iwagakure is still a bit tenuous, and that sort of thing is a good show of confidence…though I'm sure I don't have to explain all the possible political benefits of such a thing to the Hokage's apprentice." His tone was a bit dry, but there was actual interest in his eyes as he continued, "It's next weekend, and I apologize for the short notice, but I had hoped you might considering attending with me."

"…I…I don't know," the pink-haired medic-nin said uncertainly. "With everything that's been going on lately, I've had to put in a lot of overtime, but I've still go so much to do, and next weekend, I—"

"—Of course." Faint as it was, there was no mistaking the dissatisfaction-and disappointment-in his tone, or in the way his lips thinned in a tight almost-smile as he cut her off. "There's always more paperwork. I should have known. Though for future reference, a simple _no, thank you,_ is more than adequate, and quite to be preferred over an obvious and ill-considered excuse." There was a slight edge in his voice as he started to turn to go. "Forgive me for intruding."

"No—wait, Neji, I—"

What was she doing? Was she seriously going to turn him down? She looked at the invitation, letting her eyes run over the graceful strokes again even though she'd already memorized them all on the first read-through. Wasn't this exactly what she'd been wanting, something direct and to the point? This was something solid: it was pretty unmistakable now that Neji was interested in her as more than just a friend, and she enjoyed spending time with him. He was kind to her, and though he could be a little stiff and sarcastic, he wasn't at all cruel or uncaring. And he seemed to want to look out for her a little (which, after months of practically babysitting Sasuke, was a bit novel, and quite the welcome change).

_What could it hurt?_ she thought, still staring down at the letter. _It's just one date after all…and I owe him for that almost-date Kakashi-sensei crashed anyway. And also…_ She glanced up at the Hyuuga prodigy, and as her eyes met his, there it was: that faint flutter in her stomach that she'd been denying existed was unmistakable this time, and that was all it took to convince her.

Still, she was a little surprised at the feeling of mingled relief and uncertainty that came over her as she smiled up at him. "…I'd love to go."


End file.
